For Sunday Night Baseball, we have one of the best rivalries in baseball as the Dodgers and Giants conclude their weekend series. Los Angeles looks to complete the sweep and continue showing dominance in the National League West as they look forward to another run in October.
We’ll take a look at the odds to find our top Dodgers vs. Giants predictions and bets for Sunday Night Baseball on Sept. 18.
The Dodgers Look October Ready
The Dodgers will go into the playoffs as the favorites to win their second championship in three years. The team feels like it’s even better this season with both dominant pitching and hitting.
The offense comes into tonight in the top 5 this season in OBP (.336), SLG (.446), OPS (.782), and wRC+ (120). They come in with excellent plate discipline as they have the lowest chase percentage in the league (25.3), but they also bring the power with the third-best exit velocity (89.6). In the playoffs, they’re going to have the lineup that doesn’t give you a break from top to bottom.
Andrew Heaney, Wicked 85mph Slider. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/ksYXNyvD1C
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 25, 2022
Their pitching staff is tailor-made for an October series. They currently lead the league in ERA (2.87) and WHIP (1.06) and have a couple of starters you could put in the Cy Young conversation. They have pitchers throughout the rotation that can confidently get them all the way to the fall classic.
We haven’t seen much of Andrew Heaney throughout the season, as he’s dealt with problems in his left shoulder. This has been a career year for him as he’s only finished one other season with a sub-4.00 ERA and currently has a career-best 2.84 ERA.
What’s changed this year for Heaney is he’s using his slider as his secondary pitch, and it’s been impactful with a 42.9% strikeout rate and currently has a career-best 13.3 strikeouts per nine.
Injury-Plagued Season For Giants
The Giants in the early part of the season, looked like they could be in contention for at least a Wild Card spot as they hovered around .500 for the first part of the season. After the all-star break, they suffered a few extended losing streaks, and they slowly started to lose ground and now sit 9.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot.
Injuries have ravaged this roster, and during the season, they lost Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, and Alex Wood. When this lineup was intact, they had excellent contact hitters and power in the middle that could have been a competitor.
Alex Cobb @SFGiants is Monday’s Box-Toppers NL Player of the Day (7IP 6H 0R 0BB 7K W vs. ATL).
All 9 of Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners—https://t.co/7onmrrMxdA pic.twitter.com/Z4k0n2bfJE
— Box-Toppers (@BoxToppers) September 13, 2022
Unfortunately, the offensive hasn’t been, but the pitching has been consistent throughout the season. They are coming into today with 11th-best ERA at 3.87, and the starters are seventh with a 3.67 ERA.
Alex Cobb has been one of those injuries that’s affected this team, but when he’s on the mound, he’s been good. In his last six starts, he’s 3-0 with a 1.75 ERA. In that span, his shortest start was against the Dodgers going 4.1 innings and allowing three earned in the no-decision.
Dodgers vs. Giants Predictions
It’s been all Dodgers throughout this series, especially on the offensive side, as they’ve outscored the Giants 12-2. This will be a solid pitching matchup, but the Dodgers have dominated the last two games with two great starts and run support. They should be able to get it again as they go for the sweep.
Pick: Dodgers -1.5 runline | -110 at FanDuel Sportsbook
