The Giants and Dodgers match up in the City of Angels this week for a pivotal three game series between these two teams fighting for the NL West crown. With the middle game on Wednesday, both teams will be looking to grab a win to put them in a good place going into Thursday’s series finale.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
It’s hard to pinpoint just what happened, but the sad truth is the Giants just aren’t a good team anymore.
Powered by a great month of May, they worked their way to the best record in the all of baseball during the first half, but have completely tanked since. They haven’t had a winning month since going 17-10 in June and have been flat out bad here in August.
On the positive side, the home/road splits aren’t really an issue for the Giants. They’re close to even home and away overall and they’ve struggled at home and on the road since the break.
Perhaps a head-to-head series with the team that just jumped ahead of them in the NL West standings will help, granted the two teams were knotted up heading into Monday. They’ve gone 6-4 against the Dodgers in their first 10 meetings this year, but they haven’t really met since the wheels have fallen off in San Francisco.
As for the Dodgers, the wheels were supposed to have fallen off there when Clayton Kershaw went down, but the team just continued hanging in there and thanks in large part to the Giants’ collapse, they’ve been able to gain ground.
Since the break, the Dodgers are two games over .500, but they’re just four for their last 10 after beating the Reds on Sunday. The Giants’ Sunday loss dropped them to 2-6 over their last eight.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
While there’s still time for him to be pushed back again, it looks like Rich Hill will finally make his Los Angeles Dodgers’ debut on Wednesday after a long battle with a blister on his pitching hand.
Given the amount of time it took to heel, Hill should be 100-percent, but will he be rusty? And how will he transition to the National League?
Those are both legitimate questions that come into play, but looking at his numbers from his time in Oakland, his production when he’s been on the mound this year hasn’t been much of a question at all.
The 36-year old southpaw showed his remade self in a brief four game stint with Boston last year earning himself a nice one-year deal in Oakland. The move paid off big for the A’s as he went 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA and 1.092 WHIP over 76 innings spread over his 14 starts.
Before the blister, Hill ran off a stretch of six consecutive quality starts and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any start this year.
The return to the mound comes at a great time for the Dodgers considering the rash of injuries to the team’s starters and the battle with the Giants for the top spot in the division. This is a crucial series and Hill will have to outduel the Giants’ Johnny Cueto in the middle game.
The Giants’ 30-year old right-hander has been one of the stable pieces atop the rotation alongside Madison Bumgarner. The back of the rotation has caused issues, but Cueto has been reliable.
He’s 14-3 overall with a 2.90 ERA and 1.088 WHIP over his 25 starts. He’s already delivered four complete games, including a shutout and has tossed 173 2/3 innings and his well on his way to his third straight 200-inning season.
Cueto is coming off a strong seven inning outing against the Mets, allowing just one run on eight hits though he only struck out two batters. Cueto has had a couple bumps in the road here in the second half of the year, but his ERA is still respectable at 4.25 in his seven starts since the break; not great, of course, but good enough to keep you in the game.
He’s also 2-0 in three starts against the Dodgers this year, allowing nine runs in 22 1/3 innings.
LIVE BETTING
Until coming face-to-face with Noah Syndergaard on Sunday, the Giants had scored at least five runs in four straight games and seven of their previous eight as the offense began to turn the corner.
San Fran was the worst offense in the league in the second half, but with the latest streak they’ve improved near the middle of the pack in the month of August. Unfortunately for the Giants, while the offense started to pick up, the pitching let them down.
Still, the offense coming back is a huge help. It’s hard to ignore that the offensive bump has coincided with Hunter Pence being healthy and starting to heat up with his feet back under him. The quirky Giant right-fielder has looked good over the last week.
Of course, on the other side of the field, Adrian Gonzalez is really heating up, too, helping the Dodgers’ offense. Manager Dave Roberts has stuck with Gonzo in the heart of the order all year and it’s starting to pay off. He’s elevated his OPS+ up to 119. He’s now one of six starters with an OPS+ of at least 100 and that doesn’t include Chase Utley who has been pretty good all year.
Leading the way for Los Angeles in the OPS category is shortstop Corey Seager who is having one hell of a rookie campaign, but coming up just behind is Justin Turner who himself has bounced back from a weaker start.
QUICK PICK
The Dodgers may have questions on the mound to start the game due to injury, but the bullpen is the second best in the league and the offense is rolling.
Los Angeles hasn’t been on a torrid pace lately, but compared to the Giants, they’re on fire. Pence’s bat back in the order and contributing has helped San Fran’s offense find its way and with Johnny Cueto on the hill, that could be enough, but the right-hander threw better in the first half than the second half and has just one start in his last four where he gave up fewer than three runs and just three such starts in his last 10.
Look for the Dodgers to get to Cueto for a few runs and add on against the bullpen while Hill does enough before handing it over to one of the league’s better group of relievers to deliver the win.
MLB Odds: Dodgers 6, Giants 4
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