The Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres meet Tuesday in game 1 of the NLCS MLB action at Petco Park. The Philadelphia Phillies are coming off a 4-game series with the Braves. The San Diego Padres are coming off a 4-game series with the Dodgers.
The Philadelphia Phillies are 5-1 this postseason and their offense has shown up in a big way. The Phillies have scored 6 or more runs in 4 of their first 6 postseason games. The Phillies have also won 9 of their last 11 games when scoring at least 1 run. Bryce Harper leads the Phillies with 10 hits and 6 RBI, while Jean Segura and JT Realmuto have combined for 13 hits and 5 RBI. Zack Wheeler gets the ball, and he was 12-7 with a 2.82 ERA and 163 strikeouts this season. Wheeler is 0-1 with a 2.19 ERA and 9 strikeouts in his postseason career.
The San Diego Padres are riding a 3-game winning streak, and they’re getting it done mainly with their pitching. The Padres have allowed 7 combined runs in their last 3 games and 3 or fewer runs in 5 of their 7 postseason games. The Padres have won 16 of their last 19 games when allowing 3 or fewer runs. Austin Nola leads the Padres with 8 hits and 4 RBI, while Trent Grisham and Manny Machado have combined for 16 hits and 10 RBI. Yu Darvish gets the ball, and he was 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts this season. Darvish is 4-5 with a 4.60 ERA and 42 strikeouts in his postseason career.
The Phillies are 5-2 in their last 7 games following an off day and 5-1 in their last 6 overall. The Padres are 4-1 in their last 5 home games and 18-3 in their last 21 games following an off day. The over is 21-10-2 in Phillies last 33 playoff games. The over is 7-2-1 in Padres last 10 overall. The Phillies are 42-19 in the last 61 meetings in San Diego.
The San Diego Padres are going to get the benefit of the doubt because they’re at home, where Yu Darvish has been terrific. In 86.2 innings at home, Darvish has a 2.60 ERA and .188 allowed batting average. Zack Wheeler has also had issues on the road this season. With that said, Wheeler has also allowed just 8 hits and 3 runs in his last 17.1 innings. The Philadelphia Phillies are also a team you probably don’t want to step in front of with how hot they’ve been, or at least turn down plus money. This is a toss up series where the underdog is probably going to have value. I’ll take a shot with the Phillies in the series opener.