The Philadelphia Phillies enter the weekend atop the National League Wild Card standings and will look to extend that lead on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday.
Philadelphia Phillies (-115, 9) vs. St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals give Miles Mikolas the start on Saturday, who’s had his struggles recently, allowing at least three runs in nine of his last 11 starts with one of those starts being the game against the Chicago Cubs in which he was ejected in the first inning.
Mikolas enters Saturday with a 6.09 ERA and more than 1.6 home run per nine innings allowed across his last 10 starts and has had issues at home all season, posting a 5.33 ERA at home compared to a 4.25 ERA on the road with 5.9 strikeouts per nine innings across his home and road starts this season.
Countering on the mound for the Phillies is Ranger Suarez, who e enters having allowed three runs or fewer in all five of his starts since August 1, posting a 3.93 ERA with one home run per nine innings allowed and 8.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Though the Cardinals entered the series having scored at least four runs in nine of the first 12 games they played in September, the team enters in worse offensive form than the Phillies as the Cardinals since August 2 were averaging 4.2 runs per game, which ranks 20th in the league.
In that same stretch, the Phillies entered the series third in the league with nearly 6.1 runs per game and leading the league in home runs in the span with 81 home runs in 39 games.
Much of the Phillies recent scoring surge is thanks to Trea Turner, who entered the series with a .407 batting average and .462 on-base percentage with 11 home runs in his last 14 games played.
The Phillies also have the bullpen advantage as they entered the series with a 3.21 bullpen ERA since the start of July, which ranks fifth in the league while the Cardinals are 22nd in bullpen ERA in this stretch.
With Suarez and the Phillies offense entering in good form, Philadelphia will extend its lead in the wild Card chase on Saturday.
The Play: Phillies -115