Dodgers Favored to Take Game 2 Against Padres
Who: San Diego Padres v. Los Angeles Dodgers
When: Tuesday September 26th, 2017 10:10PM EST
Where: Dodger Stadium—Los Angeles, California
The 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers’ season has been one of very drastic ups and downs. Fortunately for the NL West winners, the season had far more ups than it did downs, and thanks to a 9-3 pounding of the Padres on Monday night, they now have triple-digits in the win column. As the season winds to a close and the post-season appears on the horizon, the Dodgers must first contend with the return of star, Yasiel Puig, who was benched by manager Dave Roberts for the last game of last series as well as Monday night’s opener. Though the team has not gone into any further detail, they have said that Puig was benched for disciplinary reasons, albeit undisclosed reasons.
The hope is that Puig will jump right back into form and, with any luck, remain an active player through the post-season. Since he came up to the majors a little more than 3 years ago, Puig has constantly been at the center of attention, and often for all the wrong reasons. As he becomes a veteran of the league, his manager is growing less and less patient.
The Padres came out on Monday night and put forth the same lackluster performance we have been seeing all season long. The Dodgers put up 3 runs in the bottom of the first and Yu Darvish took care of business through 7 complete innings, giving up only one earned. The Padres were able to add another 2 runs in the 8th frame, but at that point the Dodgers already had what everyone knew to be an insurmountable lead. There is hope that game 2 will be different, but with Puig’s return and the need to finish the season strong, it is looking like it will be all Dodgers once more.
Game Overview and Analysis
When the visiting Padres (+210) take the field in the top of the 1st, they will be sending Dinelson Lamet (7-7 4.45 ERA) to the mound. Limet, who is in his first year in MLB, has shown some signs of promise. You can tell this by simply looking at his record and the offense that attempts to support him. To make a long story short, Limet must be doing something right if he can earn 7 wins while pitching for one of the most ineffective offenses in all of Major League Baseball. With the way the Dodgers have been playing all year long, I think it is safe to say that Limet needs to come up with something special if he wants to finish the season above .500.
As we saw last night, the type of offense San Diego has can best be described as nonexistent. They cannot get on the board with any amount of frequency, and I do not expect them to have much of any luck against Alex Wood.
As was just mentioned, the Dodgers (-228) are going to send Alex Wood (15-3 2.71 ERA) to the mound, and that should absolutely terrify the Padres’ offense. While that might look to be the case at face value, Wood last faced the Padres on September 3rd and was handed a loss by the second-worst team in a division that has some poor teams. Wood followed that loss up with another loss at the hands of the Rockies a few days later. In many ways, Wood’s pitching through the latter part of August and beginning of September has been some of his worst of the season. With that being said, it is clear to see that Alex Wood’s worst is better than many starting pitcher’s best, and that is just one of the many reasons the Dodgers are considered to be World Series favorites.
If the bats of Los Angeles can do on Tuesday what they did on Monday, I think there is no other result other than one that, more or less, replicates what we saw in the series opener. All things considered, I think this is definitely the Dodgers’ game to lose, because all the cards seem to be in their favor.
Betting Prediction
Judging by how easily the Dodgers swept aside the Padres in the first game of the series, I think you have to go with the Dodgers’ moneyline (-228) in game 2 as well. Once again, you are not being presented with the best odds in the world, but when you look at the pitching and batting matchups it is difficult to pick against the Dodgers.
In many ways, the same logic used above applies to why I think you should take the Dodgers to cover their -1.5 (-110) point spread as offered by BetOnline. I think the bats, as well as Wood, will take care of business.
The team over/under for the Dodgers is listed at 4.5 (-110/-120), and I think the over (-110) is yet again the best pick to take.