The MLB is entering the final day of the penultimate week of the regular season on Sunday, October 2, and here you can check out the best Phillies vs. Nationals betting pick and odds.

Philadelphia and Washington will play the fourth of a four-game series at Nationals Park, and the Phillies are -240 moneyline favorites on BookMaker Sportsbook, while the total is set at 8 runs. These NL East foes have met 15 times before this series, and Philadelphia leads 13-2. Each team recorded a win in the opening two games of the current series, while Game 3 will be played on Saturday night.

Phillies suffered a big loss to the Nationals

The Philadelphia Phillies cannot afford to lose such games in which they are the strong favorites, but they did lose Game 2 of the series against the Washington Nationals. It wasn’t pretty as the Phillies suffered the biggest defeats in almost a month. After opening the series with a 5-1 victory, Philadelphia succumbed to a 13-4 loss.

Kyle Gibson dropped to a 10-8 record after surrendering seven runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts and two walks over 6.0 innings. Gibson is struggling for quite some time now, and even if the Phillies enter the postseason, it’s clear that Gibson isn’t a caliber of a playoff starting pitcher. On offense, J.T. Realmuto was the only one with a multi-hit display.  

Zack Wheeler (11-7) will get on the bump for the 26th time this year when he faces the Nats on Sunday. The 32-year-old right-hander owns an excellent 2.92 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and 156/34 K/BB ratio in 148.0 innings of work.

Nationals destroyed the Phillies in Game 2

The Washington Nationals played their best game of the second half of the season in a 13-4 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Nobody saw this coming, but the Nationals offense had a lighter training against disappointing Kyle Gibson and registered even 14 hits opposite Philadelphia’s seven. Washington still has the worst record in the MLB.

Luis Garcia and Joey Meneses dismantled Gibson and Philadelphia’s bullpen with nine combined RBIs and six scored runs. CJ Abrams and Luke Voit were also notable on offense for the Nationals. Anibal Sanchez (4-6) got to his fourth win of the campaign despite allowing four runs on five hits with six strikeouts and three walks in 5.0 innings.  

Patrick Corbin (6-18) is starting for the 31st time this year when he meets the Phillies on Sunday. The 33-year-old left-hander has a bloated 6.08 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, and 125/46 K/BB ratio across 148.0 innings.

Trends:

Philadelphia:

  • 4-1 in the last five games vs. a left-handed starter
  • 22-9 in the last 31 during game 4 of a series

Washington:

  • 3-9 in the last 12 games vs. a right-handed starter
  • 11-43 in the last 54 vs. National League East rivals
  • 2-6 in the last eight games with the total set at 7.0-8.5

Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals Pick

Patrick Corbin, although having the worst season of his career, pitched well in September and registered a 3.10 ERA, which was his lowest of all months this year. Still, Corbin was dreadful against the Phillies this season as he has a 10.97 ERA in three starts (all three losses) in 10.2 innings. On the other hand, Zack Wheeler has experienced one of the best seasons of his career and he impressed in his lone start (win) against Washington with a 1.29 ERA over 7.0 innings. The Phillies must get a win here because they are tied with the Brewers in a wildcard battle with just a few games to go.

Pick: Take the Phillies at -1.5 Run Line (-125)

The Total

In his two starts against Philadelphia, Corbin allowed even 11 earned runs and given how the Phillies bat against southpaws (.260 BA with 4.71 runs per nine innings), I expect the visitors to score 3+ runs off of Corbin here. Wheelers shouldn’t have problems with Washington’s batters who are averaging just 3.73 runs against right-handers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Nats score some runs later on. Over is 16-6-2 in the last H2H 24 meetings, while Over is 10-3 in the previous 13 H2H duels in Washington.

Pick: Go Over 7.5 runs (-125)