It seemed like yesterday San Diego was one of the three teams that were a lock to make the playoffs. The way the Padres are playing now, the only thing they will be when the postseason arrives is locked out.
Intertops (visit our Intertops Review) and several other top sportsbooks will have the Dodgers as a money-line favorite when checking out their MLB betting odds. Here is what we are looking at tonight.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021 – 10:10 PM EDT at Petco Park
On the night the last time these two SoCal rivals met (6/23), San Diego won at Dodger Stadium 5-3 putting them in a virtual tie with Los Angeles for second place, 4.5 games behind front-running San Francisco for the NL West lead. Seeing we were near the midpoint of the season, all three appeared likely to play past the regular season. That was then.
Since that contest, the Padres have reverted to being, well, the Padres at 23-26. Not surprisingly, the Dodgers have taken off like Disney’s “Loki”, with a record of 34-16. In dropping nine of 11, San Diego has fallen so hard so fast, Cincinnati has passed them for the last Wild Card spot as of today.
Manager Dave Roberts trusts his players to show up and play. He, like his players, won’t say so publicly, but comments leak out that the Dodgers are annoyed to have lost seven of 10 to San Diego. They know they are what the Padres aspire to be, nonetheless, the Friars are only seven games over .500 against anyone not in Dodger Blue.
One would have to think when Roberts’ guys see their rivals’ issues, they would like to leave San Diego with at least two if not three victories and with the way they are playing, that is not impossible against this worn-out looking opponent.
Despite winning nine of 10, L.A. wants to crank up the offense, which has scored 1.2 fewer runs a game in their last seven than their season average of 5.2.
The first scapegoat in San Diego’s slide has been cast aside like leftover French fries on the table of a fast-food restaurant in pitching coach Larry Rothschild. Of course, Rothschild had little to do with the Padres having almost as many pitchers on the IL as Shohei Ohtani home runs. And Rothschild never encouraged Manny Machado to get thrown out on calls he did not agree with or have him jog with his bat to first base on weakly hit ground ball for outs.
When a team plays fueled on emotion, what happens when the emotion dries up? This is what happens. While it is great to beat your bitterest rival, you cannot lose three of four to Arizona and follow that up with a road series loss at Colorado and dump a series to Philadelphia at home, against a Phillies club that has barely won 40 percent of their away contests. San Diego’s problem is in the mirror and inside their chest.
We waited most of the morning for a line on this matchup and nothing came. Since yesterday, it was expected Julio Urias (13-3, 3.29 ERA) would come off the IL to be the Los Angeles starter. Urias has been excellent over his last nine starts, going 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA. In nine career outings (four starts) against the Padres, he is 1-1 with a 3.86 ERA.
The real holdup for MLB odds is on San Diego with speculation that Yu Darvish (7-7, 3.70) will also come off the IL from back tightness. If not, it could be Ryan Weathers (4-6. 5.27) or possibly a bullpen game for San Diego.
In truth, if it is Urias, we are confident he will provide more than enough of what the Dodgers need and what we require for MLB picks. The L.A. lefty and his teammates are 11-3 on the road this season as a package deal and get the job done at Petco.
MLB Picks: Dodgers ML (-155) at Intertops
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.