MLB Playoff Picks and Preview for Tuesday, October 8, 2024
On Tuesday, October 8, 2024, we have two Divisional MLB Playoff Games in the National League. Both series are tied at 1-1, and now they travel to a new ballpark for game 3.
New York Mets vs. Philadelphia Phillies
In the first game, the New York Mets will host the Philadelphia Phillies. This game is expected to start around 5:08 PM and can be seen on FS1.
According to our friends at Bookmaker, this game is basically a coin toss. They have made the Philadelphia Phillies a very slight -108 favorite compared to the New York Mets, who are -102. The total on the run total is 7 runs.
The Mets jumped out on the Phillies early on in this series, taking a 6-2 win in game 1. The Phillies bounced back on Sunday, winning game 2 by a score of 7-6. Both of those games were in Philadelphia, and now, they move up the road to Citi Field for game 3.
The Mets will have Sean Manaea on the mound on Tuesday. Manaea lost his Wild Card appearance against the Milwaukee Brewers, giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs in the 5-3 loss on October 2.
Manaea has faced the Phillies 3 times this season and in those 3 starts, the Phillies have gone 2-1 over Manaea. He has given up 14 hits and 11 runs.
Opposing Manaea will be Aaron Nola of the Phillies. Nola has not pitched since September 29, 2024, so he should be well-rested. Nola has faced the New York Mets two times this season and the Phillies have gone 1-1 in those starts.
On May 14, he faced the Mets and pitched 9 shutout innings, only allowing 4 hits in the game. That was one of his best pitching performances of the season.
On September 13, the results were not the same. He went 4.1 innings, giving up 6 hits and 6 earned runs, which included two home runs.
LA Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres
The second MLB Playoff game of the day comes to us from Petco Field in San Diego, California as the San Diego Padres host the LA Dodgers. Each team won a game while the series was in LA.
The Padres are currently listed as -150 favorites in the game with the return on the Dodgers being +125. The total on the over/under runs is 7.5.
Michael King will get the start for the Padres. King looked amazing in their Wild Card game vs. Atlanta, where he went 7 innings and did not allow a run, in the 4-0 win.
Prior to that start, King faced this same Dodgers team, where he went 5 innings and did not allow a earned run, making it back-to-back games where he didn’t allow a earned run.
King faced the Dodgers 4 times this year and the Padres won all 4 of those games!
Walker Buehler will get the start for the Dodgers in Game 3. Buehler hasn’t pitched since September 26, when he beat the San Diego Padres 7-2. He only allowed 5 hits and 1 earned run in that game.
The Dodgers have only allowed Buehler to pitch a maximum of 6 innings this year, which has to be somewhat of a concern to the Dodgers, given that they used 6 pitchers in their last game.
Spooky Express Free Play
Sean Manaea is 0-3 with a 10.66 ERA in four career playoff games. In the postseason, we see time and time again that history seems to repeat itself. We think that is going to happen again tonight in MLB Playoff Game 3. We are going with the road team here and taking the Phillies at -109.