Sunday, May 20th, 2012
The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres meet in a crucial match up in the battle for the NL West title.
The Dodgers sit 2.5 games behind the Padres, with the Giants right in the mix too – a convincing series win for either might make all the difference.
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Dodgers -105 OR +1.5 runs @ -210
Padres -115 OR -1.5 runs @ +175
This is the start of a spell where the Dodgers and Padres well get to know each other extremely well. They play each other 7 times in the next ten days.
The Dodgers (53-46), after a poor spell of six defeats, have managed to grind out a couple of wins recently. But it’s their pitching that has got them out of trouble, rather than the hitting, which remains way below par. The team are hitting at a shocking .186 in recent games and even manager Joe Torre has hinted he’s concerned – without being clever enough to say so explicitly – ahead of these two big series. Rafael Furcal will be back though.
Chad Billingsley (8-5, 4.22 ERA) takes to the mound for the Dodgers, having shut out the Giants in his last outing, and he has a good record against the Padres.
The Padres (58-39) go into this series fresh from sweeping the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates and they boast the best record in the NL, to go with the meanest pitching in terms of team ERA. They are playing consistently good baseball and in the past Tony Gwynn has hit well against Billingsley.
San Diego have Jon Garland (9-6, 3.31 ERA) as their starter, and he’s not been at his sharpest recently, with Garland 3-4 in his msot recent starts, however, he does like pitching against the Dodgers.
The Dodgers have had the edge over the Padres in recent match ups, but with the Dodgers in such woeful hitting form – its the Padres for us at -115 with Bet US.Com