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The Daily Sweat: Surging Phillies try to figure out Cy Young favorite Sandy Alcantara

The San Diego Padres keep spending and trading and adding, and they're still looking up at the Philadelphia Phillies in the wild-card standings.

The Padres are in a wild-card spot but barely. They're in the last spot in the NL, one behind the Phillies, who are playing like the Padres should be.

Philadelphia has been on fire, winning 11 of 12 and six in a row. They'll be tested on Wednesday as they face Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins. Alcantara is the NL Cy Young frontrunner, but the Phillies are still -125 favorites at BetMGM.

Alcantara is -275 odds to win Cy Young, and nobody else is shorter than +700. He has a 1.88 ERA and has been good in practically every start this season. He doesn't have a very good team around him. The Marlins really struggle on offense. But Alcantara keeps them in every game.

It says something about how good the Phillies are that they're favored over the best pitcher in the National League. A lot of the Phillies' wins in their hot stretch have come against the also-rans in the NL, but they need wins as Bryce Harper heals from thumb surgery and they're getting a lot of them lately. The offense has been leading the charge, with contributions up and down the lineup. On Wednesday they get a start from Noah Syndergaard, one of the team's acquisitions at the trade deadline.

I'll take the Marlins on Wednesday because it's rare to get a good number on the Marlins in any of Alcantara's starts. But it's difficult to bet against the Phillies lately.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto (10) of the Philadelphia Phillies celebrates with Seranthony Dominguez (58) after a win over the Marlins on Tuesday. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Here's a first look at the sports betting slate for Wednesday:

Some afternoon baseball

It's Wednesday, which means get-away day for some teams as they conclude series. We have six afternoon games, including the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners trying to rally after a 13-inning game on Tuesday that went deep into the night. The Mariners won 1-0 as the Yankees continued their underwhelming play of the past few weeks. The Yankees are -135 favorites on Wednesday.

Wednesday afternoon there's also the San Francisco Giants at the San Diego Padres. The Padres have been in a bad slump since the trade deadline, though they got a 7-4 win on Tuesday night on a Manny Machado walk-off homer, after new closer Josh Hader blew a save. The Padres are -160 favorites on Wednesday.

Not much else on the slate

There are two WNBA games, but neither is a great matchup. There are some events coming up later in the week, and that helps. And we get preseason football starting on Thursday, if that's your thing.

What's the best bet?

I'll take the Colorado Rockies as a +140 underdog over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Rockies are a different team at home (31-27 at home, 18-36 road) because Coors Field is such a pain for opposing pitchers. Cardinals pitcher Jose Quintana is having a nice rebound season but he has a 5.93 ERA in his career at Coors. It's a good spot to take a Rockies team catching a nice number.