Phillies And Angels Will Be Low Scoring Game

Angels vs. Phillies, 6:40 ET

It wasn't a pretty baseball day for me yesterday. I lost both of my plays as the Brewers seemingly refuse to lose games at this point. Michael Wacha pitched a solid few innings and then the Brewers exploded for seven runs against the Padres and my play blew up in my face. I'll look to avoid a similar fate today as I have a play in the Angels vs. Phillies.

The Angels had a nice little run in them before everything went to hell. They played terrible baseball to start the year, then claimed above .500, then sunk below, then climbed back up and made it look like they would make a run for the playoffs. At the deadline, they added reinforcements in an attempt to make a move for the Wild Card. They instantly went on a losing streak and never really recovered. Mike Trout was hurt the whole time, but they started winning when he got on the injured list originally so you can't really blame that. Now Shohei Ohtani is injured - he still is playing, but he is no longer pitching. Lucas Giolito takes the hill for the Angels, he is one of the additions at the deadline. Since coming over he has had two quality starts, one really rough start, and two other good enough starts, but the Angels are just 1-4 in his five outings. He pitched a strong game against the Reds in his last game where he allowed just one earned run over six innings, but the Angels still lost that game too. He did face the Phillies earlier in the season when he was with the White Sox and he went six innings and allowed no hits before he was pulled with 102 pitches. He's held the Phillies hitters to just 11 hits in 70 at-bats.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - NOVEMBER 02: Brandon Marsh #16 and Kyle Schwarber #12 of the Philadelphia Phillies fist bump after the third inning against the Houston Astros in Game Four of the 2022 World Series at Citizens Bank Park on November 02, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Philadelphia has a different story the Los Angeles. The Phillies made a huge run last year and grabbed the Wild Card then they stormed passed everyone to make the World Series. Ultimately they lost, but getting there was impressive. They started the year pretty slowly overall, but have really made a lot of progress. I'm impressed with the way they have focused in on the Wild Card because the division was won by the Braves very early on in the season. They've gotten good performances from their pitching staff. Taijuan Walker is taking the ball for them today and he has been very solid at home this season. He's allowed just 25 earned runs at home over 71.2 innings, good for a 3.14 ERA. Six of his last seven starts have been at home and he has no quality starts over those six games. Two of them he allowed four earned runs and the others he didn't complete six innings but allowed under three earned. He's been very good against the Angels in fairly limited exposure, holding them to just seven hits over 40 at-bats.

I think both of these pitchers have a solid track record against opponents. I'm not quite surprised about the total listed for today's game: 9.5. Giolito and Walker both are capable of allowing offenses to shine against them, but I think this game is an under. Walker at home has been very good, Giolito has been solid enough and has a good track record against the Phillies. Play the under.

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