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After a thrilling Wild Card round, the National League Division Series has finally arrived with an all too familiar matchup between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Join us for our MLB odds series, where our Padres-Dodgers prediction and pick will be revealed.
Combating New York with a mix of timely offense with some dominant pitching, San Diego will now face off with one of their biggest rivals in the entire sport for a chance to fulfill their preseason expectations of being the better team than their California counterparts. After a Wild Card series that went the distance, San Diego will send out RHP Mike Clevinger, who last pitched on Oct. 1st in which he tossed six innings while only allowing one earned run on three hits. Overall, Clevinger posted a 7-7 record to go along with a 4.33 ERA in 22 games started.
Despite not having played in almost a full week, the Dodgers enter this series with their NL West foe as the overwhelming favorites to move on to the NLCS round and one step closer to their World Series dreams. On the mound to begin this best-of-five series will be the southpaw in Julio Urias. This season, Urias was an impressive 17-7 while compiling the second-best ERA in baseball with a 2.16 mark.
Here are the Padres-Dodgers MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
NLDS Odds: Padres-Dodgers Odds
San Diego Padres: +1.5 (-104)
Los Angeles Dodgers: -1.5 (-115)
Over: 7.5 (-106)
Under: 7.5 (-114)
Why The Padres Could Cover The Spread
Although concluding with a somewhat disappointing 89-73 overall to their standards, the Padres certainly have turned it up a notch come playoff time and looked like a squad that could possibly make a deep playoff run after disposing of the New York Mets. In that series, San Diego excelled at making life difficult for New York's opposing pitchers, as the Padres offense exploded for a total of 16 runs in the three games combined. Equipped with the 13th-best offense in all of baseball, it will be vital for the Friars to get the bats going against an even greater team like the Dodgers.
In addition, San Diego is all too familiar with this Dodgers bunch and despite losing 14 out of 19 contests to them, they will surely know what punches will be thrown throughout the night and the entire series. San Diego must shake off their struggles against a Los Angeles team that has had its way with them all season long. In order to do that, San Diego will need to remain patient in their at-bats against Urias who has pitched dominantly against them all year long. Regardless, the Friars will at least be equipped with a fresh arm in Clevinger, who also struggled versus the Dodgers this year with a 9.69 ERA in three starts.
Nevertheless, the savvy veteran right-handed hurler holds the key to just how well the Padres play in Game One, and if he can log at least an impressive quality start out on the road, then it isn't crazy to think that San Diego has what it takes to cover the spread and get the job done.
Why The Dodgers Could Cover The Spread
Finishing the regular season with an astounding record of 111-51, the Dodgers are convinced that their current squad possesses the best shot of winning a World Championship out of any of their teams in recent memory. While this 2022 postseason marks the 10th playoff appearance in just as many years for the Dodgers, Los Angeles put themselves in unprecedented territory by becoming just the seventh club in baseball history to win as many as 110 games. Not to mention, five of those squads ended up advancing to the World Series while three of them were able to win a title. Simply put. LA is looking to put themselves in the history books for the rest of the time.
For starters, the Dodgers come into the opening game of this matchup as favorites, and for good reason. Currently serving as the -1.5 run favorites, Los Angeles knows that anything less than a deep playoff run would be a massive disappointment. In order to avoid that and cover the spread in the meantime, look for the Dodgers to ride the young and talented arm of Julio Urias. Against the Padres this season, Urias was flawless with a 3-0 record and a 1.50 ERA over the course of 24 innings pitched. Throughout his entire career, Urias has been a thorn in San Diego's side as he has posted a 6-1 record to go along with a 2.19 ERA in his 1o overall starts.
Plus, who could forget when the Dodgers last squared off with the Padres dating back to the 2020 NLDS when Los Angeles was too overwhelming for San Diego to overcome in the 3-0 sweep?
Final Padres-Dodgers Prediction & Pick
There is certainly a ton of bad blood between these two organizations, but only one side will have what it takes to cover the spread in this opening NLDS contest. With that being said, it is hard not to put your faith in a Dodgers squad that has yet to prove otherwise. It will be close for a majority of this heated matchup, but the Dodgers will pull away late.
Final Padres-Dodgers Prediction & Pick: Dodgers -1.5 (-115)
