After a dud — except you are a Guardians fan — of a primary recreation, the remainder of the primary day of divisional play within the 2024 Main League Baseball playoffs delivered. What an exhilarating day of motion. Talking of motion, we hit the vast majority of our performs right here yesterday, so let’s hold the great occasions rolling.
RHP Luis Severino vs. LHP Cristopher Sánchez
Some followers would possibly’ve anticipated the Phillies to go together with Aaron Nola within the No. 2 spot, however there is a motive for Sánchez, the All-Star, to get the nod right here. He had a 2.21 ERA at dwelling and 5.02 ERA on the street this season. As such, the Phillies absolutely felt it crucial to get him the ball in Residents Financial institution Park this collection.
Severino simply pitched in Sport 1 of the Wild Card Sequence and gave up 4 runs on eight hits in six innings whereas solely placing out three. This got here after he had a 5.63 ERA in his final three regular-season begins, 4.55 ERA in his final 11 and 5.00 in his final 15.
Keep in mind, although, in Sport 1 of the doubleheader Monday, Sport 3 of the WCS and Sport 1 of the NLDS, the Mets mixed for 18 runs within the eighth inning or later. This recreation is way more than the pitching matchup.
The play: First 5 innings, Phillies in lead (-105)
I am completely taking the Miracle Mets out of the equation. The Phillies do not get to try this, however we do.
The Phillies noticed Severino twice in September and hit him fairly decently, scoring six occasions on eight hits in 12 innings. To get two beauty at him earlier than seeing him once more only a few weeks later at house is a pleasant state of affairs for the offense.
The Mets additionally noticed Sánchez twice, however in his dwelling begin, he solely allowed one run in seven innings.
I simply must have the Phillies main by way of 5 innings for this one and I like the pitching matchup for that.
RHP Yu Darvish vs. RHP Jack Flaherty
Since returning to full energy, Darvish has a 2.78 ERA and his solely actual downside has been the longball: he is given up seven runs in 22 2/3 innings and 5 of these runs got here on homers. He is been higher on the street than at dwelling and you already know he has loads of expertise in Dodger Stadium.
Flaherty had a 3.58 ERA and 1.28 WHIP after the Dodgers acquired him on the commerce deadline. He completed with a 6.43 ERA in 14 innings in his final three outings. The Padres acquired him for 3 runs on 4 hits and three walks in 5 innings in his final begin of the season and so they get a fast turnaround to see him once more.
The play: Shohei Ohtani over 2.5 hits + runs + RBI (-115)
I’d simply trip Ohtani so long as the Dodgers are round this postseason. Possibly that is too simple however who cares? A win is a win. We do not get type factors by choosing longer pictures right here or something. I simply talked about that Darvish has been touched up by the house run and the one participant in baseball higher at hitting it out of the ballpark than Ohtani is Aaron Decide. Ohtani hit .322/.411/.717(!) towards righties within the common season and clubbed a three-run homer off right-hander Dylan Stop in Sport 1.
And, as I discussed earlier than Sport 1 after I performed this very prop on Ohtani — although it was 1.5 and now it is as much as 2.5, appropriately — he is a top-shelf basestealing risk in entrance of some main expertise. If he merely walks, he is a risk to steal a base (or two) and rating. He had 43 stolen bases in his final 75 regular-season video games, a 162-game tempo of 93 steals.
He’ll get us dwelling right here.
Nonetheless, I would like extra.
The play: Padres over 3.5 runs (-125)
I like this offense proper now and I like them to get to Flaherty fairly shortly, not too dissimilar to what occurred towards Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Sport 1. They simply noticed almost the entire Dodgers’ necessary bullpen arms, too.
