The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies meet Monday in MLB postseason action from Citizens Bank Park. This will be Game 6 in a best-of-seven National League Championship Series playoff. Philadelphia leads this NLCS 3-2 following a five-run victory in Game 5. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Arizona Diamondbacks 

The Diamondbacks dropped the first two games of this series at Citizens Bank Park 5-3 and 10-0. Heading back home to Chase Field however, Arizona got comfortable and pulled off a pair of close wins 2-1 and 6-5 to even things up. The Diamondbacks fell behind early in Game 5 Saturday and never recovered in a 6-1 loss. Geraldo Perdomo was the lone player with more than one hit (2-for-4), and Alek Thomas had the lone RBI with a solo home run. 

In the starting pitcher slot for Game 6 on Monday it’ll be Merrill Kelly. So far this postseason in two starts Kelly is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 12.0 innings. Kelly last appeared in the Game 2 start, giving up four earned in 5.2 innings. 

Arizona Diamondbacks Team Facts

• The Diamondbacks have won five of their last six playoff games as underdogs after not playing the previous day.
• The Diamondbacks have covered the run line in eight of their last nine road games against National League opponents following a home loss.
• The Diamondbacks have trailed after 7 innings in each of their last seven night games against NL East opponents.
• The Diamondbacks have trailed after 3 innings in each of their last four road games against NL East opponents.
• The ‘Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Diamondbacks’ last six road games.

Philadelphia Phillies

Over on the Phillies’ side, they’ve had few issues scoring runs this series and Saturday’s Game 5 win was no different. Philadelphia got home runs from Kyle Schwarber (two hits; two runs), Bryce Harper (two hits; three runs) and JT Realmuto (two RBI) in the victory. Zack Wheeler posted 7.0 innings of one-run ball on the mound and was backed up by a solid bullpen performance (2.0 innings; two hits; one walk; three Ks). 

Aaron Nola will take the mound for the Game 6 starting job. Over his three starts so far Nola is 3-0 this postseason, pitching to a 0.96 ERA with 19 Ks in 18.2 innings. Nola went 6.0 clean frames in the Game 2 win. 

Philadelphia Phillies Team Facts

• The Phillies have won 12 of their last 13 games at Citizens Bank Park.
• The Phillies have covered the run line in each of their last seven playoff games at Citizens Bank Park.
• The Phillies have led after 3 innings in each of their last five playoff games as home favorites.
• The ‘Inning 1 OVER 0.5 runs’ market has hit in each of the Phillies’ last eight games as home favorites against NL West opponents.
• The Phillies have led after 5 innings in each of their last six home playoff games.

Matchup/League Facts

• The Philadelphia Phillies are one of only 3 teams in the league to rank top 10 in both steals and batting average this season.
• The Philadelphia Phillies are one of only 3 teams in the league to rank top 10 in both steals and home runs this season.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks rank 1st in the league for triples this season (44).
• The Arizona Diamondbacks rank 2nd in the league for steals this season (166).

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’m going to stay with the Phillies here; I think they’ll close out the series with a decisive win Monday. With Nola on the mound, Philadelphia should get a quality start and they’ll be set up well bullpen-wise. The Phillies used a ton of pitchers in the Friday loss but only needed four (including Wheeler) to close out the Game 5 win. The bats should stay hot as well; Philly has posted five or more runs in four of the five games in this series, including 11 runs total in the last pair. 

As for the Diamondbacks, they need to strike early at the plate in order to set a tone in Game 6. Arizona’s bats have been shaky at best in this series. They’ve managed two runs or fewer in three of the last four games, and it’s too much to saddle an overworked bullpen with slowing Philadelphia down. Look for Arizona to try a little bit of everything here if things don’t go well initially. If the Diamondbacks don’t get it together on the scoreboard however, this series is over.