Pick on the Total for Padres-Phillies on July 14

The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies return from the All-Star Break on Friday and hook up on Friday in the City of Brotherly Love looking to make a second half playoff push.

San Diego Padres (-115, 9.5) vs. Philadelphia Phillies

For the Padres, the offense was the weak point of the team in the first half of the season, entering Friday with a .232 road batting average, which is the second-worst mark in the National League and a league-worst .223 with runners in scoring position.

Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez will look to keep the bats silent as he enters having allowed three runs or fewer in all five of his starts this season with a 2.84 ERA and 1.4 walks per nine innings rate this season.

On the other side, Yu Darvish looks to rebound from a rough start to the season that saw him post a 4.86 ERA with the team going 3-6 in his most recent nine starts and Darvish allowing at least three runs in seven of his last eight starts.

Part of the reason for Darvish’s struggles is that opponents have a .309 batting average on balls in play against him, which is on pace to be his second-worst mark since the beginning of the 2015 season and has a fielding independent of 4.03 with 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings.

The Phillies have relied less on their offense this season, ranking 15th in the league entering the All-Star Break in runs scored and 18th in home runs per at-bat percentage at home this season after ranking fourth in that category last season

Both teams had two of the better bullpens in the National League in the first half of the season with the Phillies second in the National League in bullpen ERA while the Padres were fourth.

With the advances numbers indicating Darvish should bounce back in the second half of the season coupled with the growth of Sanchez on the other side, both offenses’a break from scoring will be prolonged.

The Play: Padres vs. Phillies Under 9.5