For the second straight year, the Philadelphia Phillies have gone from plucky Wild Cards to the NLCS. The fourth-seed Fightins punched their ticket to baseball’s final four in dramatic fashion, outlasting the top-seeded Braves in a wild NLDS Game 4 on Thursday night. They now move on to their second consecutive NLCS, hoping for a repeat performance after reaching the World Series in 2022. They’ll be going up against quite the Cinderella story: The Arizona Diamondbacks went just 84-78 in the regular season, but they came out of nowhere to sweep the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers en route to their first NLCS since 2007.
With each pitching staff rested and ready, it’ll be a battle of aces on the mound, with Zac Gallen (17-9, 3.47 ERA) going for the D-backs and Zack Wheeler (13-6, 3.61) getting the ball for Philly. The Phillies enter as -166 favorites on the moneyline at DraftKings Sportsbook, with Arizona at +140. The run total is set at 7.5.
Philly has released their lineup for today’s game, so let’s take a look at how they’ll line up against Gallen.
Phillies starting lineup, NLCS Game 1, October 16
Phillies lineup tonight Game 1 NLCS
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 16, 2023
Schwarber DH
Turner 6
Harper 3
Bohm 5
Stott 4
Realmuto 2
Castellanos 9
Marsh 7
Rojas 8
Wheeler RHP pic.twitter.com/piCVB6B8VE
Rob Thomson continues to run out the same lineup against righty pitching, with Kyle Schwarber leading off, Bryce Harper hitting third, Alex Bohm in the cleanup spot and Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas in left and center, respectively.