The Phillies took two of three at home over the weekend against the Blue Jays even though they were tagged as the road team. After a very rough stretch, they are starting to come together once again, going 8-3 over their last 11 games including four of five on the road to move two games over .500 away from home. Cincinnati has had a good run as well with wins in five of six games to reclaim first place in the National League Central by a half-game over St. Louis. The Phillies send Kyle Kendrick to the mound and he has been anything but consistent this season.

The good thing is that the bad starts are not contagious and he is coming off one of those starts last time out. He allowed four runs against the Indians but he has bounced back well off similar outings as in the last four times he has allowed four runs or more, he has come back with a quality start in each of his next starts. He has a solid 0.96 ERA over those four starts with the Phillies winning all four of those games. Kendrick has a 3.20 ERA in seven road starts this season. He is opposed by Johnny Cueto who is coming off a seven-inning shutout over Oakland in his last start. That was his first quality outing over his last five starts but this is a test. Four of his last five quality performances came against Pittsburgh twice, Cleveland and the aforementioned A's and those are some bad offenses. Cueto faced the Phillies twice last season and it was not pretty as he posted a 15.26 ERA and lost both games. The Reds are 2-8 in their last 10 games when their opponent scores five runs or more in their previous game while the Phillies are 10-4 in the last 14 meetings in Cincinnati. The Phillies also fall into a solid underdog situation. Play against National League home favorites with a moneyline of -110 or higher with a starting pitcher who has a WHIP between 1.25 and 1.35 on the season in June games. This situation is 70-49 (58.8 percent over the last five seasons but is much better than that based on it being an underdog spot. 3* Philadelphia Phillies