I’m taking Philadelphia on the road here, mainly because of the motivation mismatch.
Philly are right on the edge of the playoff picture in the National League, currently in 7th place at 27-26.
Washington have been all but eliminated from playoff contention, now 3rd last in the conference at 20-32.
Not only are Philly 6.5 games ahead in the standings, they also have a run differential that is better by 23 runs across the season.
I also like the pitching matchup for them here, with Zack Wheeler having been much better than Sanchez of late.
Overall, I’ll take the more talented team with a ton of motivation against a team that has likely checked out.
There is no line up at the time of writing, but I couldn’t miss another opportunity to fade the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I’d expect Chicago to be instilled as around $1.60 favourites and would recommend this play until $1.50.
Pittsburgh continue to be the worst team in the conference, dead last at 15-38 with a -88 run differential.
The Cubs are in the middle of a very impressive campaign, sitting in 3rd place in the National League at 31-22.
Their +21 run differential isn’t outstanding, but it’s solid enough and is comfortably better than their opponents here.
They’ll also be highly motivated in this one to at least maintain their playoff seeding, with Atlanta right on their tail.