Philadelphia Phillies vs. San Francisco Giants MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/18/2021

The Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants meet in MLB action from Oracle Park on Friday night.

The Philadelphia Phillies will look to build on their 2-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in their last matchup. Rhys Hoskins had a solo home run and J.T. Realmuto added a double and an RBI to finish off the scoring for the Phillies in the winning effort. Luke Williams went 3 for 4 at the dish and Odubel Herrera had a pair of hits while Alec Bohm, Zack Wheeler and Travis Jankowski each had a base hit to cap off Philadelphia’s offense as a team in the winning effort. Wheeler got the win on the mound to improve to 5-3 on the year after tossing six shutout innings, allowing just five hits while striking out six on the way to the win. Hector Neris closed out the 9^th for his 10^th save of the season. Vince Velasquez will start here and is 2-1 with a 4.25 ERA and 57 strikeouts this season. in his career, Velasquez is 1-3 with a 3.62 ERA and 36 strikeouts against San Francisco.

The San Francisco Giants will look to build on their 10-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks last time out. Curt Casali went 3 for 5 with a home run, a triple and four RBIs while Mauricio Dubon and Mike Yastrzemski each had a double and two RBIs. Steven Duggar and Wilmer Flores each had an RBI and a double to finish off the scoring for the Giants in the win with Duggar going 3 for 3 with a triple, falling a home run short of the cycle. Donovan Solano had a double while Brandon Belt had a pair of hits and Jake Vosler had a base hit as well to cap off the offense for San Francisco in the win. Kevin Gausman got the win to improve to 8-1 on the year after allowing two earned runs on four hits while striking out six over eight innings of work. Johnny Cueto will start this one and is 4-3 with a 4.00 ERA and 42 strikeouts this season. in his career, Cueto is 1-5 with a 5.30 ERA and 48 strikeouts this season.

Philadelphia is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall and 29-66 in their last 95 games as a road underdog while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record. San Francisco is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall and 16-5 in their last 21 series-opening games while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games on grass. The under is 6-2 in the last 8 meetings between these two teams in San Francisco.

I’ve had a hard time splitting hairs for a side here, as Cueto hasn’t been the typical Cueto I’ve loved betting on in recent years, while the Phillies send Vince Velasquez to the mound who I’ve seen get lit up more often than not over the course of his career. Even in a pitcher’s ballpark like Oracle, I have to back the over in this spot.