This is an 8* play on PHILADELPHIA

With teams like St. Louis and Washington surging, Philadephia's late season swoon has proven to be ill-timed. They lost 5-4 to the Pirates last night, on an embarrassing error from Rhys Hoskins that led to the game winning run scoring in the top of the ninth. But we don't think beating a last place team at home is asking too much quite frankly and the Phillies did win Monday's game 6-5. Believe it or not, they are still only two games back of the Wild Card. So if they can win today, they're not out of it by a long shot. Though this series has seen the two Pennsylvania rivals split a couple of one-run decisions, Philadelphia has dominated Pittsburgh the last two years, going 9-2. Wednesday starter Velasquez has struggled of late, even failing to win when being spotted a 7-0 lead in his last start. But the Pirates are not a good team. It's been a disastrous second half of the season for them, going 12-31. Their starter for tonight's game is Mitch Keller and his four road starts have produced an ugly 10.47 ERA and 2.26 WHIP. Velasquez should outpitch him and the Phillies should go onto to win a series they probably should have swept. Play on PHILADELPHIA

AAA