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Philadelphia goes into Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field trying to stop the slide before this series gets away completely. The Phillies are 8-16 and have lost eight straight, while the Cubs are 15-9 and have won eight in a row after Wednesday’s 7-2 result. First pitch is set for 2:20 p.m. ET, and the listed TV coverage is NBC Sports Philadelphia and Marquee Sports Network. The probable starters are Cristopher Sánchez for Philadelphia and Edward Cabrera for Chicago. This is a strange market at first glance because the hotter team is the home underdog. The reason is pretty obvious. Sánchez has been excellent, carrying a 1.59 ERA with 39 strikeouts and just one home run allowed in 28 1/3 innings,

San Diego heads into Thursday afternoon at Coors Field trying to win the series after Wednesday’s 8-3 loss snapped some momentum. The Padres are 16-8 and tied atop the NL West, while Colorado is 10-15 and still trying to climb out of the division cellar. First pitch is set for 3:10 p.m. ET in Denver, with Padres.TV and Rockies.TV listed for the broadcast. The probable starters are Matt Waldron for San Diego and Ryan Feltner for Colorado. This is one of those Coors Field games where the total deserves just as much attention as the side. The market has San Diego favored, which makes sense given the overall team quality gap, but neither starting pitcher comes in with a clean

Chicago heads into Thursday’s series finale at Chase Field trying to win a second straight road series after taking two of its last three overall. The White Sox are 9-15 and fourth in the AL Central, while Arizona is 14-10 and third in the NL West after Wednesday’s 11-7 win evened this set. First pitch is scheduled for 3:40 p.m. ET in Phoenix, with CHSN and Dbacks.TV on the broadcast. The listed pitching matchup is Davis Martin for Chicago against Michael Soroka for Arizona. This matchup has turned into more of an offense game than I expected a couple days ago. The first two meetings produced 34 total runs, and both lineups have shown enough extra-base damage to keep pressure

The Dodgers head into Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park trying to avoid a three-game sweep after dropping the first two games of this NL West set, including Wednesday’s 3-0 loss. Los Angeles is 16-8 and tied for first in the division, while San Francisco is 11-13 and sitting fourth, five games back. First pitch is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET, with SportsNet LA, NBC Sports Bay Area, and MLB.TV carrying the broadcast. The pitching matchup is Tyler Glasnow against Logan Webb, which, on paper, still gives Los Angeles the cleaner starting edge. This game is interesting because the recent series results and the season-long profiles point in slightly different directions. The Giants have won the first two games and have