Series Future: Dodgers Handle Padres With Ease
Padres vs. Dodgers, Best of 5
There aren't many teams that did well against the Dodgers this season. You can certainly put the Padres into that discussion as they went just 5-14 against the Dodgers this year. The Dodgers are my pick to win the World Series, so you probably know where I'm headed with who I think will win, but I'm not in the habit of giving out -210 picks.
The Padres are here because they took care of business against the Mets. I was never a Mets fan, but they had a good run this season and the Padres took the series that I thought was a coin flip. They looked like the better team. It also helped that the Mets were struggling heading into the series, but either way, the Padres took care of business. The pitching staff was great in the series with Yu Darvish turning in a great game and Joe Musgrove looking amazing. Now they turn to Mike Clevenger to start the series against the Dodgers. He has a 9.69 ERA against the Dodgers this year. It does get better for them, though. The other three pitchers - Darvish, Musgrove, and Snell all have sub-four ERAs against the Dodgers. Still, it seems like they will be going down a game heading into this series.
The Dodgers offense is too good to stumble, right? Well, it happened last year. They fell to the Braves before Atlanta went on to win the World Series. This year they seem like they are even better than last year's dominant squad. Even though they haven't officially named a starter for tomorrow, they basically can roll a ball into their locker room and whoever picks it up will be a top-notch starter. They clearly have better offense and a better pitching staff. The one area of concern to me might be their bullpen. They are good, but you have guys like Craig Kimbrel that aren't quite as dominant as they used to be. This team is too good to be eliminated here.
I am taking the Dodgers -1.5 games in this series at +130. I think getting this at plus money is really good value. The Dodgers would need to win in three or four games. I think they win the series without much question. If the Padres win or the series goes five games that means we lose, but I don't see either of those things happening.
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