Pick on the Moneyline for Phillies-Diamondbacks on October 19

The Philadelphia Phillies go into Arizona up 2-0 on the Diamondbacks in the National League Championship Series and look to put a hammerlock on the series in Game 3 on Thursday.

Philadelphia Phillies (-125, 9) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Ranger Suarez gets the start on the mound for the Phillies and has done his best work on the road with a 2.59 ERA and 0.6 home runs per nine innings compared to a 5.20 ERA and 1.3 home runs per nine innings allowed at home.

Behind Suarez is a bullpen that between the regular season and playoffs has a 3.47 ERA in the bullpen, which ranks fifth in the league while the Diamondbacks ranked 18th in bullpen ERA in both the entirety of the regular season and post All-Star Break.

The bullpen shakiness means the Diamondbacks will need Brandon Pfaadt to come up big in this start, who has had major woes pitching at home this season.

Between the regular season and postseason, Pfaadt has a 5.59 ERA, which shoots up to a 5.86 ERA at home while overall this season allowing more than 1.9 home runs per nine innings.

Pfaadt’s task is to slow down a Phillies offense that since August 1 leads the league in home runs per game with nearly two and is notching over 5.7 runs per game, only the Braves ended the season averaging more runs per game from August 1 until the Phillies ended their season.

The Phillies enter game three of the National League Championship Series having hit 19 home runs on offense while their pitching has allowed 13 runs in total, with the Diamondbacks having to start a rookie in Pfaadt, the Phillies will take a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

The Play: Phillies -125