Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
The National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers (26-10) will go for their third straight victory as large favorites to start a three-game home series with the last-place Arizona Diamondbacks (14-21) on Tuesday. The Dodgers just outscored the Texas Rangers 14-6 in the last two games of their series over the weekend and set a National League record for most home runs in a month with 57 in August.
Julio Urias (2-0, 3.67 ERA) will try to stay perfect for Los Angeles in the opener on Tuesday night as -260 chalk on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Urias is actually coming off his worst start of the season a week ago against the San Francisco Giants, who got him for six hits and four runs in an eventual 10-8 victory in 11 innings. The 24-year-old southpaw had given up four runs in his previous three outings combined, with two of them resulting in wins. Opposing Urias for Arizona will be Alex Young (1-1, 4.70 ERA), and he has surrendered three runs in each of his past two starts and three home runs total in nine innings.
While the Dodgers have been one of the best teams in baseball all year, the Diamondbacks have slumped badly lately with 10 losses in their last 11 games to fall into the NL West cellar. Arizona has also lost four of the past five meetings with Los Angeles, according to the OddsShark MLB Database, after putting together a three-game home sweep around the same time last year. In addition, the UNDER is 4-1 at online betting sites in the previous five games between the teams.
The last two games of the series on Wednesday and Thursday will likely favor the first-place Dodgers over the Diamondbacks in a big way at the sportsbooks as well based on pitching matchups alone, as Clayton Kershaw (4-1, 1.80 ERA) will get the call on Wednesday for Los Angeles while Dustin May (1-1, 2.83 ERA) is in line to start the series finale on Thursday.
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