With the way Hiroki Kuroda has been pitching, getting Manny Ramirez back into the Dodgers lineup tonight should prove too much for the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.
The Dodgers make the trip to San Diego for a three-game weekend set against the host Padres. The Padres completed a four-game set at home on Thursday afternoon versus Houston losing the series three games to one.
In the last two games of that series they gave up seven runs in each contest and only managed to score a total of eight runs themselves during the entire series. San Diego is a miserable 5-12 their last 17 at home and 1-7 their last eight when installed as a home underdog.
The road certainly doesn’t get any easier as the Dodgers are 14-2 when facing teams with a win percentage in the range of 38 to 46 percent on the season.
The Padres are 2-8 their last 10 when facing righthanded starters and 9-25 when they face a pitcher whose WHIP is 1.15 or less on the year. LA has proven to be a tough out in division play posting a record of 44-18 versus opponents from the NL West and 50-22 as a favorite overall.
LA is also active in a MLB System that tells us to play on road favorites with a moneyline of -125 or more, averaging 0.9 homeruns or less per game on the season and coming in off a one-run win in their last game; these teams are 71-22 since the '97 season for +40.6 units of profit.
Our TPR (Team Performance Ratings) Index projects a Dodgers win in tonight’s contest by 1.3 runs and our Math Model also favors LA by 0.95 runs over the Padres so lay the chalk with the visitor as LA grabs game one on Friday night.
Projected Finals Score: Los Angeles-4 San Diego-3
Free Pick: Dodgers -135