The Baltimore Orioles and the Philadelphia Phillies meet in MLB action from Citizens Bank Park on Monday night.
The Baltimore Orioles will try to bounce back from their 8-6 loss at the hands of Boston on Sunday. Trey Mancini had a double and three RBIs in the loss while Austin Hays added two RBIs and Anthony Santander had a double with an RBI to cap off the scoring for the O’s in the losing effort. Richie Martin and Ryan Mountcastle each had a pair of hits while Kelvin Gutierrez added a double. Pedro Severino and Cedric Mullins each had base hits as well to finish off the offense for the Orioles in defeat. Alexander Wells allowed five earned runs on six hits while striking out three over five innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Conner Greene took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the year in relief. John Means will start here and is 5-7 with a 3.41 ERA and 118 strikeouts this season.
The Philadelphia Phillies will look to rebound from a 3-2 loss at the hands of the Mets on Sunday night. J.T. Realmuto had a double and an RBI while Bryce Harper added a double of his own to make up the scoring for the Phillies in the loss. Jean Segura went 2 for 4 with a double while Freddy Galvis and Matt Vierling had a pair of hits each and Ronald Torreyes had a base hit as well to cap off the offense for Philadelphia in the defeat. Kyle Gibson took the loss, falling to 10-8 after allowing three runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work. Ranger Suarez will start here and is 6-4 with a 1.50 ERA and 86 strikeouts this season.
Baltimore is 16-38 in their last 54 Monday games and 41-111 in their last 152 series-opening games while the under is 5-0 in their last 5 road games against a left-handed starter. Philadelphia is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall and 5-0 in their last 5 Monday games while the over is 5-1 in their last 6 interleague games as a favorite.
I get that Means is still probably the best starter in the Orioles rotation, but he’s been awful for the better part of the season and honestly, this Orioles team is not one I’m looking to back even with a lot of plus money. Philadelphia still has the outside shot at making the postseason, but they need to take advantage of winnable spots like this if they’re going to have any chance. I’ll take the Phillies -1.5 here as I think the Phils pound on John Means here.