Article courtesy OddsShark (@OddsShark)
With just 16 games remaining in the regular season, the New York Mets (76-70) are two games out of a Wild Card spot in the National League and might end up meeting the Los Angeles Dodgers (95-53) in the postseason if they are lucky enough to get there.
This weekend’s three-game series between the Dodgers and Mets, starting on Friday, could be a potential playoff preview, with the former listed as slight -130 road favorites (bet $130 to win $100) on the MLB odds for the opener at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Dodgers at Mets | OddsShark Matchup Report
Clayton Kershaw (13-5, 3.06 ERA) will toe the rubber for Los Angeles and try to end a personal three-game losing streak after he went unbeaten in his previous eight starts. Kershaw has allowed three runs in two of the three outings but saw his team total only five runs in those games.
He has not been the same pitcher on the road either, going 4-3 with a 3.61 ERA in 10 starts compared to 9-2 with a 2.70 ERA at home.
New York will counter with Noah Syndergaard (10-7, 4.06 ERA) as a +120 home underdog (bet $100 to win $120) at sports betting sites in going for its fifth straight victory. The Mets are coming off a four-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks to keep their postseason hopes alive, capped by an 11-1 rout on Thursday with a team-record six home runs.
Syndergaard has seen New York alternate losses and wins in each of his last six starts, so he is hoping that pattern continues at least in the first game of this key series at Citi Field.
Since knocking out the Dodgers 3-2 in the 2015 NL Division Series en route to making it to the World Series, the Mets have gone a disappointing 6-18 in the past 24 meetings, according to the OddsShark MLB Database. The more surprising recent series trend though is the OVER cashing in five of the last six games between the teams and seven of nine despite there being some stellar pitching matchups during that stretch.
Saturday’s pitching matchup pits Hyun-Jin Ryu (12-5, 2.45 ERA) of Los Angeles against New York’s Jacob deGrom (9-8, 2.70 ERA) while Walker Buehler (13-3, 3.14 ERA) will follow Ryu on Sunday for the Dodgers versus Zack Wheeler (11-7, 4.21 ERA) and the Mets. Both games should have comparable betting lines of near pick’em with deGrom possibly favored.
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