Well, we have ourselves a series, folks. After the Phillies jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead by taking the first two at home, the Diamondbacks have found a flare for the dramatic in the two games they have hosted thus far to help even it up at two games a piece.
Tonight, we get a rematch of aces in an all-important Game 5. The drama is high heading into this one, and you can make the matchup even more exciting by cashing some player props. Let's dive into our top three for this matchup.
Phillies vs Diamondbacks Game 5 Player Props
Zack Wheeler over 15.5 pitching outs (-145 via bet365)
The Phillies were fortunate to get a tremendous outing from Ranger Suarez in Game 3, but that was not the case last night in Game 4. They needed eight different pitchers to collect 24 outs.
Fortunately, they get to hand the ball to their bulldog ace, Zack Wheeler. Wheeler has been the guy on the Phillies staff when it comes to eating up innings.
He has gone over this total in 74% of his starts this season, which includes Game 1 of this series, where he threw six innings of two-run ball.
Wheeler is the man to back tonight, and you should not only play any price at this line, but it's also good at 16.5 as well.
Nick Castellanos over 1.5 Hits+Runs+RBI (-105 via DraftKings)
It has not been a great NLCS for Nicky Two Bags, as he's mustered just one hit through the first four games of this series. However, this will be his second look at Zac Gallen this postseason, and he is due for some positive regression against him.
This season, Castellanos is 2-for-7 against Gallen but has an average exit velocity of 94.2 mph, which means he's been making plenty of hard contact and is due to be rewarded moving forward.
That also applies to his sample size in this series overall. We have not seen Castellanos struggle much this season, and his track record points to him breaking out sooner rather than later.
Castellanos has gone over this total in 54% of games this season, which gives us implied odds of -117 that he'll do so again tonight.
Alec Bohm under 1.5 total bases (-125 via bet365)
We go from one hitter who shows signs of future success against Gallen to one who is much more questionable. Alec Bohm has been a high-contact machine over the last two seasons, and his ability to put the ball in play has led to a bevy of hits.
However, he has yet to tally one against Zac Gallen in seven career at-bats against him. While that is a small sample size, it only adds to Bohm's inability to rack up extra bases.
Bohm was just middle of the pack in hard-hit rate and average exit velocity but finished in the bottom fourth of the league in barrel rate. He has not shown the consistent pop to get extra-base hits, which is why he has gone under this total in 61% of games this season.
That hit rate gives us implied odds of -156 that he'll go under tonight.
