Section 215’s Best Philly Betting Picks for 8/9 (Phillies Drop Nats, Bohm Stays Hot)
By Tyler Maher
After splitting a doubleheader yesterday, the Phillies and Nationals are back at it today. We like Philly’s chances with Michael Lorenzen on the bump in his second start since joining the team.
With a busy day of baseball ahead of us, we have three MLB bets to choose from as our best Philly betting picks for Wednesday.
Best Philly Betting Picks 8/9
Tyler Maher: Phillies Runline vs Nationals
The Phillies split their doubleheader with the Nationals yesterday, winning the first game as we predicted.
The series continues tonight, when we’ll get our second look at Michael Lorenzen since he came over at the trade deadline. His first start for us was masterful, as he held the Marlins to 2 runs over 8 crisp innings on the road for the win.
We think he’ll do something similar in his home debut tonight against a lackluster Nationals lineup. The All-Star is on an incredible roll right now with a 1.42 ERA and a 2.80 FIP over his last five starts, pitching some of the best baseball of his career.
The same can’t be said of MacKenzie Gore, who’s still figuring things out in his second season. His numbers are a slight improvement over last year, but his 6-8 record, 4.34 ERA and 1.42 FIP don’t inspire a ton of confidence.
The Phillies have a patient, powerful lineup that can take advantage of Gore’s control issues (3.9 BB/9, 1.4 HR/9 this year). Back Philly to give Lorenzen an early lead and cruise from there, covering the runline in the process.
Jason Schandl: Alec Bohm To Hit a Home Run
MacKenzie Gore is showing plenty of improvements in his first season with the Nats, but he’s still giving up the same kind of contact he was last year with above-average hard-hit and fly-ball rates.
Those numbers have been especially high against right-handed hitters (35.5% hard hits and 39.9% fly balls), and that’s where Alec Bohm comes into play.
Bohm has clearly been adjusting his swing as his major league career has gone on, and 2023 marks the third straight season that his fly-ball rate has increased. He’s already just 1 home run shy of tying his career high (in 52 fewer games than he played when he set it), and he’s been especially dangerous against southpaws.
He’s gone yard 7 times in just 103 plate appearances against lefties, slugging .612 with a massive .272 isolated slugging (ISO) in the split.
Bohm’s gone yard in two of his last three games, so I’m backing him to stay hot in a favorable matchup today.
Isaiah De Los Santos: Braves @ Pirates OVER
The runs have been flowing between the Braves and Pirates this series. With the scoring showing no signs of slowing down, I’m jumping on the Over in this one.
The first game of this series kicked off with a bang, as Pittsburgh defeated Atlanta 7-6. Despite the Braves sending out ace Spencer Strider, the Pirates chased him out of the game in the third inning after he gave up 6 runs. Atlanta returned in the favor in Game 2, downing Pittsburgh 8-6.
Both teams’ offenses have had no trouble creating scoring opportunities so far, with the Braves racking up 24 hits in two games and the Pirates posting 18.
Pittsburgh’s performance against Strider shows they’re not afraid of a tough pitching matchup. Atlanta will hope Max Fried can quiet the Pirates’ bats on Wednesday, but this is also only his second start since May and he was relatively unchallenged by the Cubs in his return.
With how these offenses are playing right now, I think they’ll take advantage of a possibly rusty Fried and the shaky Quinn Priester on the mound.
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