Tommy Lynch is a senior baseball analyst for Wannamakeabet.com
Word Series Game 1 Phillies @ Astros
We finally made it after a long season we are down to our final 2 teams. Most people expected the Astros to be here but not the Phillies. The Phillies have been an underdog all season/ playoffs and are playing their best ball at the right time. Let’s break this series down.
Batting
The Phillies bats have come alive this postseason and through their 11 games they have hit 16 home runs driven in 56 RBI’s and as a team they are hitting .237. Which may seem low but that is second out of all teams in the postseason. The Astros through 7 games have hit 12 home runs driven in 31 RBI’s and are hitting .227 as a team. The interesting thing to note here is the Phillies have been carried by their star power mainly Harper who is on fire! The Astros stars especially Altuve, Alvarez and Tucker have struggled and most of their production has come from Bregman and the bottom half of their lineup. They are a deep team.
Pitching
This is the biggest discrepancy with these 2 teams this postseason. The Phillies pitching this postseason has been good with a team ERA of 3.06. The Astros pitching staff outside of one game has been lights out. The team has a combined era of 1.88! In my mind there is no question that the Astros are the better overall team, but this is baseball and anything can happen.
Game 1
For Game 1 the Phillies will send out Aaron Nola who had 2 great starts to start the postseason, but his last start was not. He allowed 6 runs in 4 innings to the Padres. He actually faced most of these hitters just a few weeks ago pitching 6 innings of no run ball. The Astros will send out the veteran Justin Verlander who started the postseason with the worst performance of his season but followed it up with 6 innings allowing 1 run to the Yankees. It is interesting to note that Verlander in the World Series is 0-6 with a 5.68 ERA!!
How will this break effect these teams? On the pitching end I think it will be a big benefit as each team was able to set up their starting pitching and has a rested bullpen. For the hitters I could see this cooling off the bats and that would not be good for the Phillies. I know Verlander wants to erase those World Series stats and I expect him to have a big game here at home. I think Nola will have success as well. As mentioned, the stars for the Astros have been slumping. If those big 3 start hitting, I think this series will be over quickly the Astros are just too deep of a team. However, I need to see those bats wake up before I back them. I will ride the starting pitching tonight and hope for a nervy game 1 by the hitters. Give me Under 6.5!
Prediction Game 1 Astros 4 Phillies 2
Under 6.5 Runs
Let’s stay hot and make it 5 wins in a row!
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World Series Game 1 pick