Padres vs. Phillies, NLCS Game 1 Preview
The NLCS kicks off tonight at Petco Park, where I think the San Diego Padres hold a distinct advantage over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.
Whew, here we go. Tonight, the San Diego Padres kick off the National League Championship Series at Petco Park against the Philadelphia Phillies. Whoever wins the series heads to the World Series. We’re so close!
Tonight will be the best of the best for both teams. They’re as rested as they’re going to be in the playoffs, their rotations are reset, and they have a chance to reconfigure rosters to better suit their needs in this series.
Before I actually start breaking down some matchups, I do want to say this:
The biggest reason the Padres were able to beat the Dodgers in the NLDS was because they won one of the first two games in Los Angeles and removed the Dodgers’ home field advantage. From that point on, there were three games left and two of them were in San Diego. Better than that, if they won those two games, they never had to return to Los Angeles (which is what happened).
The Padres are now in the other position. They have home field advantage, and they’ll keep it as long as they don’t lose one of the first two games. The series would have to go six games to come back to San Diego, which is as many as it would have to go for the Phillies to win if the Padres won the first two games.
I can’t stress the important of games 1 and 2 enough. They’re not the whole series, but the path becomes much more difficult if the Padres don’t take them both.
Okay, onto the preview…
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