Football 
Tennis 
Horse Racing San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Game 1 Best Bet: Padres Favourites to Reach World Series
San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Game 1 Best Bet: Tuesday, October 18th
The San Diego Padres arrive at the NLCS as slight favourites to advance to the 2022 World Series, but the Phighting Phillies have other plans in mind. It will now take 4 wins in the series to earn that spot in the Fall Classic, as the post-season format is back to a best-of-7 series.
In this article:
- San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Preview
- San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Best Bet
San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Preview
October 19, 01:03 (UK time)
Series Odds: Padres 1.83 / Phils 2.05
Game 1 Odds: Padres 1.83 / Phils 2.10
Expected Starting Pitchers: Padres: Yu Darvish (16 – 8; 3.10 ERA) / Phils Zach Wheeler: (12 – 7; 2.82 ERA)
Excitement is in the air again out West, as the San Diego Padres are 4 wins away from reaching the World Series for the first time since losing to the New York Yankees in 1998. The Padres are the only team located West of Houston that is left in the playoffs, and there will be plenty of travel miles built up should this NLCS go the full 7 games. The two organizations are separated by 2,700 miles, but that’s just logistics so let’s get to the field.
Staying on the Padres’ side of the ledger, it is hard not to be impressed with the way this team took out the Dodgers to arrive at this juncture of the post-season. The Dodgers had won 111 regular season games, but they ultimately just ended up being the first team since 1954 to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs with such a high win total.
The Padres got so much bad news during the season on Fernando Tatis, and could you imagine if he contributed to anything going on in 2022? Tatis started the year injured and then the news about substances ended the rest of his year, but this team is still winning. The Padres were only 5 – 14 in the 19 regular season games against the Dodgers but when the lights were shining the brightest in the post-season, they found the ability to play their best baseball.
Yu Darvish will finally be getting a chance to start a home playoff game, but that has not stopped him from helping his team win two road games this year. Darvish got the call for Game 1 in New York against the Mets and Max Scherzer, and all he did was go 7 innings strong allowing just the one home run to Eduardo Escobar.
Clayton Kershaw was his opponent in Los Angeles and despite giving up 3 home runs to the Dodgers, Darvish still escaped with a 5 – 3 win to level the series at 1 – 1 after losing Game 1. San Diego came home and shut down the Dodgers for two games and here we are favoured to take the NLCS to start the series at home.
Let’s turn our attention to the Phillies, and discuss what they have accomplished thus far. This is the Phillies’ first appearance in the NLCS since 2010, a series they lost 4 – 2 to the Giants who went on to win the World Series that year. Philadelphia’s pitching staff has been lights out, as their starters in the playoffs have accumulated a 1.44 ERA holding opponents to a .170 batting average.
Bryce Harper has blasted a trio of home runs while going 10 for 23 with 6 extra-base hits in the playoffs. Jean Segura went 3 for 4 in the NLDS clinching game, and he is 7 for 18 in the post-season batting a stout .388 with 2 doubles, 3 RBI, with 4 runs scored, and a stolen base to his credit.
Zach Wheeler hasn’t had the best luck in the playoffs this year, but he certainly has still pitched well. Wheeler has a no-decision and a loss to show for his pair of post-season appearances, and through 12⅓ innings he has only given up three earned runs. All of them came against Atlanta in the NLDS, the only game the Phillies lost in the series to the Braves. What he has done is given his team a chance to win games though, and I am expecting him to put up another considerable effort in the ALCS.
Wheeler should get at least two starts in the series as he and Darvish will likely meet again down the road. I am turning to the RHE prop here expecting a low-scoring game and hopefully, the Phillies bats don’t go nuts early as they have been seen doing in the playoffs.
San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Best Bet
I see BetOnline showing 23 on the Runs-hits-Errors prop, and that works for me. We have a 6.5 on the game total so the line setters expect a tight-lowscoring game as well.
- Selection: Under 23 Runs
- Best odds: 1.95 (BetOnline)
- Stakes: 4/10
Odds as of 10:00 am October 18th, 2022. Odds may now differ.
More San Diego Padres vs Philadelphia Phillies Tips
