I do not know if anyone noticed between news of Randy Johnson reaching 300 wins and the Braves dishonoring Tom Glavine, but this weekend the only two teams with winning percentages above .600 are playing. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who have continued to play incredible baseball in the absence of Manny Ramirez, host the Philadelphia Phillies in a rematch of last season’s NLCS.

The four-game series began yesterday and ended in a 3-0 Phillies victory thanks to a complete game shut out from Cole Hamels. The rest of the series will play out with Fridays pitching match up between the Dodgers Eric Milton (2-0, 3.14 ERA) and the Phillies Jamie Moyer (4-5, ERA 6.75), Saturdays pitching match up of the Dodgers Hiroki Kurado (1-1, 2.53) and the Phillies Joe Blanton (4-3, 5.86), and Sunday’s pitching match up of the Dodgers Randy Wolf (3-1, 3.21) and the Phillies Antonio Bastardo (1-0, 1.50).

From the pitching match ups you would have to overwhelmingly favor the Dodgers, who are 20-7 at home. However, the Phillies have managed to go 20-6 on the road despite these terrible starting pitching numbers.

A closer look at the series shows that Friday’s game between Moyer and Milton has two starting pitchers that have failed to go past six innings in any start this season. Milton is in just his fourth start and is getting the pleasure of going up against the murderous lineup of Chase Utley, Jason Werth, Ryan Howard, and newest Phillies MVP candidate Raul Ibanez. Moyer just earned his 250th career win and has been steadily lowering that once 8.15 ERA in the last three starts. While the Dodgers may not drive ball deep, the team is leading the National League in offense thanks to the ability to make contact. That makes them a danger to Moyer, who can go as many pitches now that he is 46 years old.

Saturday’s game is hardly a gimmee for the Dodgers. Kurado is returning for his second start after being out of the lineup since opening day. His first start against the Arizona Diamondbacks went alright, but pitching against the 13th best offense in the league is hardly the same as pitching against the best slugging team in the NL. The Phillies Joe Blanton has continued to be a questionable asset since the trade last season with the Oakland A’s. He has a dominant performance, a disaster, and a so-so performance in the last three games so who knows which Blanton will arrive at the mound on Saturday.

Sunday’s series finale should be the most interesting game of the series. The Dodgers Randy Wolf was phenomenal in May, going just 2-0 in six starts, but posting a 2.35 ERA. The Phillies are sending Antonio Bastardo (now my favorite MLB players name since he is listed in the pitching stats as A. Bastardo on ESPN’s Phillies page) onto the mound for his second big league start. He had an impressive inaugural performance against the San Diego Padres, going six innings, allowing just four hits, walking just one, striking out five, and allowing one earned run. That was against the Padres though, and the only player that scares me in that batting lineup is Adrian Gonzalez (I refuse to be scared by Scott Hairston as the cleanup hitter with his career 49 home runs over five seasons).

I say the series ends in a 2-2 split, which means the Dodgers will take two of these next three games. That may seem like a cop out, but there are simply too many starting pitchers with extenuating circumstances to consider other than the Phillies penchant for power, the Dodgers preference for contact, and two amazing bullpens. These are two very good teams, so there is no clear winner and in a four game series there is the possibility of a tie.

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