The Philadelphia Phillies open up their home series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday looking to extend their lead in the National League Wild Card race and look for a good start on the mound from Cristopher Sanchez.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Philadelphia Phillies (-130, 9.5)
Sanchez enters having allowed three earned runs or fewer in 11 of his 12 starts this season and a 3.36 ERA, but will look to cut down on the 1.5 home runs per nine innings he’s allowing this season.
While Sanchez has to face a Cardinals lineup that is seventh in the league in home runs per game, but are dealing with injures to outfielder Lars Nootbaar, who has 12 home runs, and infielder Nolan Gorman, who has 25 home runs this season.
On the mound for the Cardinals, Miles Mikolas gets the start, who has allowed at least three runs in five of his last six starts with his start in which he got ejected in the first inning against the Chicago Cubs excluded.
While Mikolas is allowing just 0.9 home runs and 1.8 walks per nine innings, but has a 4.55 ERA and 4.00 fielding independent due in large part to allowing lots of general contact, getting just 6.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
The Phillies lineup are fifth in the league in runs per game since the All-Star Break with 5.3 per game with Bryce Harper’s power returning, hitting for a .400 on-base percentage since the All-Star Break with nine home runs in the last 35 games after hitting three home runs in his first 58 games of the season.
The bullpen advantage is on the side of the Phillies with the team eighth in the league in bullpen ERA both since the All-Star Break and overall this season while the Cardinals are 21st in bullpen ERA overall this season and 17th since the All-Star Break.
With the Cardinals 26th in the league in runs per game since the Mikolas ejection on July 27, averaging less than 3.7 runs per game in this 25 game span, the Phillies will take care of business in Friday’s series opener.
The Play: Phillies -130
