Befitting a National League Championship Series featuring a pair of underdogs, the team without home-field advantage is favored to advance to the World Series.
Major bookmakers listed the Washington Nationals as a slight favorite to capture the NLCS over the St. Louis Cardinals as of Thursday afternoon.
The Nationals rallied past the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wild-card game, then stunned the league’s top regular-season team, the Dodgers, in a five-game NL Division Series. Washington won the decisive Game 5 in Los Angeles on Wednesday, 7-3 in 10 innings.
St. Louis, in third place in the NL Central at midseason, rallied to win the division, then knocked off the Braves in a five-game NLDS. The Cardinals scored 10 runs in the first inning Wednesday to cruise to a 13-1 win in Game 5 at Atlanta.
The NLCS will open Friday in St. Louis, but the odds lean toward the Nationals emerging.
As of Thursday afternoon, DraftKings had Washington at minus-114 to take the NLCS with St. Louis at minus-106.
FanDuel and Caesars Sportsbook both listed the Nationals at minus-120 and the Cardinals at even money.
Even though three of baseball’s final four were set as of Thursday afternoon, with the New York Yankees awaiting their American League Championship Series opponent, a team that had yet to escape its division series was listed as the favorite to win the World Series.
The Houston Astros, set to host the decisive Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night, topped the list of favorites in World Series futures.
Houston was listed by DraftKings at plus-175 to win the World Series. FanDuel had the Astros at plus-170 to take the title, and Caesars put Houston at plus-160. The Yankees were next at all three books, plus-250 at FanDuel, plus-240 at DraftKings and plus-200 at Caesars.