Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
The Los Angeles Dodgers (62-33) started the second half of the 2019 season by taking two of three games from the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox over the weekend. Now the National League-leading Dodgers travel to Philadelphia on Monday for the first of four games against the Phillies (48-45) as consensus -170 road favorites (bet $170 to win $100) on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
This series seemingly sets up well for Los Angeles in terms of the pitching matchups, with Clayton Kershaw (7-2, 3.09 ERA), Walker Buehler (8-1, 3.46 ERA), Kenta Maeda (7-6, 3.82 ERA) and Ross Stripling (4-3, 3.65 ERA) all getting a chance to win at Citizens Bank Park between Monday and Thursday before the team heads home.
Dodgers at Phillies | OddsShark Matchup Report
Kershaw gets the call in the series opener after some much-needed extended rest following the 2019 MLB All-Star Game, and the Dodgers lost his last three starts leading up to the break. He got a decision in only one of them, despite giving up four runs or more twice during that stretch.
Zach Eflin (7-8, 3.78 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Phillies, who are +150 underdogs (bet $100 to win $150) at sports betting sites and have dropped four of the past five games he has started. Eflin has seen his ERA rise nearly a run over that period from 2.81, although three of his last four have taken place on the road. He has been much better at home this season with a 5-2 mark and 3.04 ERA in seven starts, and so has his team in going 28-19 there.
Unlike L.A., Philadelphia still has a lot of work to do in order to make the postseason, currently sitting 8.5 games behind the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. While the Phillies do hold one of the two Wild Card spots, there are five other teams battling them, with just 1.5 games separating them all.
The Dodgers swept the prior series with the Phillies this season, with the UNDER going 2-0-1 on the betting totals, according to the OddsShark MLB Database. But prior to that, Philadelphia won three of the previous four, with the OVER cashing in three straight.
Going back even further, Los Angeles is 19-11 in the last 30 games of the series dating back to 2015, and the OVER is 16-9-5. However, Philadelphia is 6-2 in the past eight meetings at home, and the OVER is on a 5-0-1 run in the series at Citizens Bank Park.
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