Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
After picking up seven victories over the course of a nine-game road trip, the Los Angeles Dodgers return home Friday as they open a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants as heavy -255 favorites on the MLB odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The Dodgers swept a pair of games in Houston against the Astros, then beat the Diamondbacks three times in four outings in Arizona before topping the Padres in two of their three meetings in San Diego earlier this week.
That boosted Los Angeles to 9-4 to start the season, and allowed them to keep pace with the surprising Colorado Rockies atop the National League West standings during this truncated MLB campaign. The Rockies finished 35 games behind the Dodgers in fourth place in the NL West standings last season.
Los Angeles closed out its road trip with a 7-6 win at San Diego on Wednesday, earning the victory as -122 favorites at sports betting sites in an OVER result for totals bettors. The OVER has now paid off in three of the last five games for the Dodgers, after the UNDER had gone 7-1 in their first eight outings on the season.
Joc Pederson hit a pair of home runs for the Dodgers in Wednesday’s win, driving in five of the team’s seven runs in the contest. Ross Stripling earned the win on the mound for Los Angeles despite allowing four runs on six hits in his 5.2 innings of work.
Julio Urias (1-0, 2.45 ERA) is slated to take the mound for the Dodgers on Friday, and he’s had a strong start to the season. The left-hander held the Giants to just one run on five hits over five innings in a no-decision back on July 26, and earned his first victory of the year by giving up just two runs on five hits over six innings against the Diamondbacks on Aug. 1. Urias has struck out eight while walking four in 11 innings.
The Dodgers split that Opening Series with the Giants at home with two victories apiece, with the teams combining on three UNDER results in the four contests. Overall Los Angeles holds the edge at 6-4 in its last 10 games against rival San Francisco dating back to last September, according to the OddsShark MLB Database, with the OVER/UNDER 4-6 in that span for totals bettors.
Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 0.00 ERA) is the Dodgers’ probable pitcher for Saturday night, and he blanked the Diamondbacks on three hits with six strikeouts over 5 2-3 innings of work in his season debut on Aug. 2. Walker Buehler (0-0, 5.19 ERA) is in line to start for Los Angeles in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.
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