In a rematch of last year’s World Series, the Philadelphia Phillies (15-13) will take on the Houston Astros (14-13) Sunday night. The Astros will host this game at Minute Maid Park, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 pm ET.
This will be the finale of the three-game series, with the Phillies having taken both of the first two. On Saturday, they took down Houston 6-1.
The Astros are the favorites in this one playing at home. They are -152 to win, while the Phillies’ moneyline sits at +128. The runline features Philadelphia +1.5 (-162), and the over/under for total runs is 8.5.
Phillies Looking To Stay In NL East Race
While the Phillies are looking to exact a small bit of revenge for their World Series loss last year by sweeping Houston, they are also trying to stay in the mix in the NL East. At 15-13, they sit in fourth place in the NL East, 3.5 games behind the Braves.
On the mound for Philadelphia, Sunday night will be lefty Bailey Falter. In five games, he is 0-4 with a 4.50 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and he has 19 strikeouts in 28 innings. In his last start, Falter picked up the loss against Seattle after giving up three earned runs in six innings.
Offensively, Kyle Schwarber has provided the most pop thus far. In 102 at bats, he is hitting just .206/.319/.422, but he has a team-leading six home runs.
The team is also waiting for Trea Turner to erupt. Thus far, he is hitting .261/.302/.378 with two home runs and seven runs batted in, but the Phillies had far greater expectations after signing him to a mega-deal this offseason.
Houston Hopes To Improve At Home
At 14-13, the Astros currently sit two games behind the Rangers in the AL West, but they have really struggled at home this season. In fact, while they are 8-4 on the road, they are just 6-9 at Minute Maid Park. They will look to improve that record Sunday night.
Offensively, the Astros currently rank 11th in scoring. They are averaging 4.73 runs per game, although they have averaged just 2.33 over their last three contests.
Yordan Alvarez continues to lead the offense. In 78 at bats, he is hitting .269/.383/.551 with a team-leading six home runs and 27 runs batted in.
Aside from Alvarez, Jeremy Pena (six home runs, 20 runs scored) and Kyle Tucker (five home runs, 19 runs batted in) have both had strong starts to the year.
Jose Urquidy will get the ball for the finale. In five starts, he is 1-2 with a 5.64 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, and he has 20 strikeouts in 22.1 innings of work. His last outing was especially rough as he gave up six earned runs in a loss to the Rays in just 2.2 innings of work.
Take Philadelphia On The Runline
Neither of these two pitchers has inspired much confidence this season, which means that it wouldn’t be shocking to see both offenses erupt for some runs. With that in mind, the over 8.5 (-120) might be appealing.
Houston is tough to bet on at this point. Not only are they missing Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley, and Chas McCormick, but they have been awful at home this year too.
While it is also a tough sell to take Philadelphia straight up with Bailey Falter pitching, there is a lot of value in the runline. Take the Phillies +1.5 (-162).
