Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
The Los Angeles Dodgers (30-19) head into this divisional series with the San Francisco Giants 1.5 games behind the San Diego Padres (32-18) for first place in the National League West. But the Giants are tied with the Dodgers after sweeping a pair of games with the Arizona Diamondbacks and will try to move back ahead of them in the standings starting on Thursday when they begin a four-game series as opening +113 road underdogs at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com (how the moneyline works).
San Francisco (30-19) led the NL West before getting swept in three games at home by Los Angeles last weekend by a combined score of 19-9. Then San Diego took over the division lead and has maintained it thanks to 11 wins in 12 games. The Dodgers are coming off a split with the Houston Astros, falling 5-2 as -155 road favorites in the finale on Wednesday to end their eight-game winning streak after taking the opener 9-2 as -115 chalk on Tuesday.
Giants vs. Dodgers | OddsShark Matchup Report
This series sets up well again for Los Angeles in terms of the starting pitching matchups after Thursday’s opener, although the defending World Series champions still opened as -123 home favorites for Thursday despite it being a bullpen game for them. Alex Wood (5-1, 1.93 ERA) will get the call for San Francisco against his former team for the second time in seven days, and he gave up two runs and eight hits in six innings of a 2-1 loss last Friday with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Friday’s pitching matchup will see Anthony DeSclafani (4-2, 3.54 ERA) of the Giants versus Walker Buehler (3-0, 2.78 ERA) followed by Logan Webb (3-3, 4.09 ERA) vs. Julio Urias (7-1, 3.03 ERA) on Saturday and Kevin Gausman (5-0, 1.53 ERA) vs. Clayton Kershaw (7-3, 2.94 ERA) on Sunday, respectively. Los Angeles figures to be at least a solid favorite in each the last three games of this series as well.
San Francisco completed a sweep of Arizona with a comeback victory Wednesday, rallying for a 5-4 win by scoring three runs in the top of the eighth inning. The Giants cashed as -115 road favorites and handed the Diamondbacks their 10th consecutive loss. But they have lost the past five meetings with the Dodgers and 13 of their last 17 matchups.
Los Angeles is a strong -275 favorite to win the NL West right now at sports betting sites compared to +1600 for San Francisco. San Diego is the +210 second choice while Arizona (18-32) is back at +35000. However, the Colorado Rockies (19-30) are the longest shots to win the division at +60000 odds.
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