Friday night baseball and we will see the Los Angeles Dodgers travel to Petco Park to take on the San Diego Padres in game 1 of their 3 game series. Free Pick to follow. First pitch is scheduled for a 10:10 PM (Eastern) start time and the game will be televised locally.
Betting Odds
Dodgers -200
Padres +185
Over/ Under: 6.5 U -115
The Dodgers had not been playing well before their home series with the Diamondbacks, but they turned it a round with a 3 game sweep of their division rivals. The Dodgers are now 35-25 overall, but just 10-15 on the road for the year. The San Diego Padres are coming off a road trip in which they went 4-3 on. The Padres are now at .500 for the year and in 3rd place in the NL West, 5 games behind the Dodgers.
The Dodgers rank 5th in scoring (4.48 rpg), 9th in hitting (.259) and 2nd in homers (79), while on the mound they are 5th in ERA (3.36) and 4th in WHIP (1.19). The Dodgers have gone 22-10 in their last 32 after allowing 5 runs or more in their previous game and 38-14 in Kershaws last 52 starts during game 1 of a series, but just 2-5 ATS in his last 7 road starts.
San Diego ranks 7th in scoring (4.37 rpg), 20th in hitting (.246) and 22nd in homers (49), while on the mound they are 19th in ERA (4.03) and 23rd in WHIP (1.33). The Padres have gone 26-12 in their last 38 home games with the total set at 6.5 or lower, but just 17-37 in their last 54 games as an underdog of +151 to +200 and 0-7 in their last 7 games as a home underdog.
Getting the ball for the Dodgers tonight will be Clayton Kershaw, who is 5-3 with a 3.36 ERA on the year overall, while on the road he has struggled some, going 1-2 with a 4.76 ERA. Clayton has gone 12-6 with a 2.33 ERA in 25 career starts vs the Padres, while at Petco he is 4-2 with a 2.22 ERA in 9 starts.
Taking the hill for the Padres tonight will be Odrisamer Despaigne, who is 3-4 with a 4.72 ERA as a starter this year, while in 4 home starts he is 2-2 with a 4.12 ERA. Odrisamer is 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA in 2 career starts vs the Dodgers.
Pick: I will be going with the Over in this one. Padre home games have yielded many more runs this year than in years past as games played here have put up 9 rpg, which is nearly 3 rpg more than this park is used to seeing. Yes Kershaw is on the mound for the Dodgers and he has pitched well of late, but he does have a 4.76 ERA on the road this year, plus we note that his mates have scored plenty fro him this year, as they have averaged 4.6 rpg for him overall and 7 rpg for him in his last 3 starts. Odrisamer has struggled at home this year with a 4.31 ERA and he has a 6.35 ERA in 2 career starts vs the Dodgers. The Dodgers have averaged 4.2 rpg on the road, while the Padres have averaged 4.3 rpg at home. 6.5 is just too low a total here, especially since we note that the Over is 9-4 in Clayton's last 13 vs the Padres and San Diego's last 22 home games have gone 16-5-1 to the Over.
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