The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers start a 3-game series in LA! It’s time to continue our MLB odds series with a Padres-Dodgers prediction and pick.
These two rivals will face each other six times over the course of the next week. The first series is in LA and then a week later will be in SD. All you really need to know right now is that the Dodgers have won 17 of the past 19 matchups. However, the Dodgers are coming off of a series loss to the New York Mets while the Padres are coming off of a series sweep to the San Francisco Giants.
LA has an 18-game lead over the Friars in the division and will likely end the season as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the National League. The Padres are fighting for a playoff spot as they currently own the final Wild Card seed by three games over the Milwaukee Brewers.
Here are the Padres-Dodgers MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Padres-Dodgers Odds
San Diego Padres: +1.5 (-150)
Los Angeles Dodgers: -1.5 (+125)
Over: 8 (-118)
Under: 8 (-104)
Why The Padres Could Cover The Spread
On the bump for the Padres tonight is ace Yu Darvish. Darvish is having another respectable season with an (11-7) record and 3.41 ERA in 155.2 innings. He has a WHIP of 0.99 which is 10th in baseball and his 153 strikeouts are 16th in all of the league. Darvish doesn’t pitch as well on the road with a 4.44 ERA as he steps his game up at Petco Park. The Japanese right-hander has pitched a quality start in every start since May 13. He’s gone at least seven innings in 11 starts since that day and will without a doubt attempt to do the same again tonight. If Darvish can pitch a quality start for the Friars then they will have a chance to cover this spread tonight.
Manny Machado finished the month of August with ridiculous numbers and helped the Padres’ offense find its groove again. He’s hitting .306 with 24 home runs and 85 RBIs on the season. He leads the team in all of those categories. Juan Soto, Brandon Drury, and Josh Bell are all finally finding their place in SD as well. Drury has 4 home runs and 18 RBIs in 26 games with the team but Bell and Soto are a ways behind statistically. Soto just has three bombs and six RBIs in 23 games while Bell has two homers and nine RBIs in 26 games. The good news is they are all starting to hit at the same time. That needs to continue in their biggest series of the season.
Why The Dodgers Could Cover The Spread
Dustin May is back and starting for the Dodgers tonight. He’s off to a great start this season (because of course he is) as he is fully recovered from Tommy John surgery. Every single Dodgers’ starting pitcher this season is putting up phenomenal numbers as it is safe to say this is the top team in all of baseball. May is (1-1) with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings this year. He has a WHIP of 0.82 with 13 strikeouts and hasn’t allowed a run at home this year. He’s only started two games and both came against the Miami Marlins. May didn’t allow a run in the first game going five innings and allowed just one hit. In the second he allowed five hits and two runs in the 2-1 loss to the Marlins. Expect him to be on his game at home tonight.
The Dodgers lineup is one of the best in baseball and they have two MVP candidates leading the way. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are both leading the team in WAR while Trea Turner is right behind and leading the team in RBIs. If Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy can get back to their All-Star level hitting, then the Dodgers lineup will be too stacked to stop. Even Joey Gallo is finding a way to get on base and that’s when you know you are out of luck. Trayce Thompson is batting .296 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs in 135 ABs for the Dodgers this season. His presence has been huge for this club.
Final Padres-Dodgers Prediction & Pick
The Dodgers own the Padres just like Aaron Rodgers owns the Chicago Bears. Take the Dodgers to cover this spread until the Padres start to prove it otherwise.
Final Padres-Dodgers Prediction & Pick: Dodgers -1.5 (+125)
