Phillies, Cubs open four-game series at Wrigley (May 01, 2017)
CHICAGO -- Brett Anderson is still trying to solve left-handed batters, and control remains an occasional issue for the Chicago Cubs left-hander as he prepares to make his fifth start of the season Monday night against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Even so, Cubs manager Joe Maddon thinks Anderson's best days are yet to come as his team opens a weeklong homestand.
Anderson picked up his second victory on April 24, a 14-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
"It was really encouraging, a really good game to build on," Maddon said. "There's another level of him, and it's going to show very soon."
Anderson (2-0, 3.54 ERA) goes against Phillies right-hander Vince Velasquez (1-2, 6.33 ERA) on Monday in the teams' first meeting this season and the start of a four-game Wrigley Field series.
The defending World Series champion Cubs (13-11) dropped two of three to the Boston Red Sox, including a 6-2 Sunday loss at Fenway Park to wrap up a weekend interleague series and a 5-4 road trip.
The Phillies (11-12) dropped all three games to the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend, including a 5-1 Sunday setback. Philadelphia came into that series riding a six-game winning streak.
Anderson had a quality start last week in Pittsburgh, allowing three runs (one earned) on five hits over six innings. He walked a career-high six but got 12 outs on ground balls.
He also had a run-scoring single and drew a walk.
"Technically it was a quality start, but in my mind it wasn't very quality," Anderson said after the game. "My offensive performance was better than my pitching."
Left-handed batters are hitting .462 (6-for-13) against Anderson, who is holding right-handed batters to a .224 average (15-for-67).
Anderson, acquired by the Cubs in an offseason free agent deal, is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA in two career starts against the Phillies. Both came in 2015 while with the Dodgers.
Velasquez is 1-2 with a 6.33 ERA in four starts and 21 1/3 innings this year, including back-to-back losses to start the season. In those two games, he was touched for nine runs while issuing seven walks in a total of nine innings.
He since improved, allowing three runs in six innings during a no-decision on April 19 against the Mets, then earning his first win of the season on Wednesday at Miami, a 10-9 Phillies victory.
"I was in control the whole way," Velasquez said of the outing against the Marlins in which he gave up three runs on six hits over a season-high 6 1/3 innings. "If I'm going to go deep in games, I've got to get ahead as soon as possible. Whatever it may be -- changeup, curveball, slider or whatever -- I've got to attack."
Velasquez is 0-1 with a 12.60 all-time ERA in two starts against the Cubs.
The Phillies are 4-8 on the road while the Cubs are a puzzling 4-5 at Wrigley Field so far after going 7-2 at home in the season's first month in 2016.
