After playing a crazy game to begin this series Tuesday night the Cubs and Dodgers go again Wednesday night at Wrigley Field.
Chicago’s actually played a couple crazy games the last few days and won both. We’ll see how long that luck lasts.
Lefty Matthew Boyd hits the hill for the home team here while it looks like the Dodgers are going with a bullpen day.
How are we playing this game with our free baseball betting pick?
MLB Betting Odds
Wednesday’s baseball betting market opened this game at right around a pick ‘em, with an O/U of 9. Both figures were holding steady in early betting action.
Dodgers-Cubs Betting Preview
Chicago rallied late to win the opener of this series Tuesday night 11-10 in 10 innings. The Cubs led 5-3 after one inning and 7-4 through five, then fell down 10-7. But Chicago scored twice in the bottom of the eighth, once in the bottom of the ninth (a two-out, game-tying home run), then won it with a quick run in the bottom of the tenth.
The Cubs won Tuesday as +100 “dogs” against Dustin May and the game played over a total of 9 in the fifth inning.
With Tuesday’s win Chicago is 6-3 over its last nine games. At 15-10 overall the Cubs lead the NL Central by a game and a half over second-place Milwaukee.
With Tuesday’s loss Los Angeles is 1-2 over its last three games. At 16-8 overall the Dodgers trail first-place San Diego by one game in the NL West.
This series is already the third meeting this season between these two teams. Back in mid-March the Dodgers took two games from the Cubs in Tokyo. But three weeks later Chicago took two of three at Dodger Stadium, including that 16-0 spanking.
Wednesday’s Pitching Match-Up
Boyd is 1/4 on quality starts this season but he’s actually been better than that. Last Wednesday he held San Diego to two runs and six hits through 5 1/3 innings, although Chicago lost that game 4-2. And on the season he’s allowed just five runs and 19 hits through 22 1/3 innings, with nine walks against 20 strikeouts.
The Cubs are 1-3 with Boyd this season but that’s not his fault. Also, the totals are 2-2.
Over his last two starts against the Dodgers, one last year while with Cleveland and one two weeks ago, Boyd allowed four runs and seven hits through 12 innings, with three walks against 13 whiffs.
As of mid-morning Wednesday it appeared Los Angeles would go with a group effort on the mound. We should note that bullpen unit threw four innings Tuesday night.
Splits With the Sticks
Last year we ranked Los Angeles as one of the top five line-ups in Baseball against left-handed pitching. This season the Dodgers are batting just .202 vs. lefties, with a .275 team OBP and a .399 team slugging percentage.
Chicago is slashing .265/.344/.462 this season.
The Bullpens
The Cubs bullpen owns a 5.34 ERA this season, along with a 1.57 WHIP and a 1.60 K/BB ratio.
Last year we ranked the Dodgers bullpen among the top five in Baseball. This year the LA pen owns a 3.67 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP and a 3.72 K/BB ratio.
MLB Betting Trends
- The Dodgers played 62-47 against LH starters last season and they’re 5-4 vs. lefties this season.
Totals Report
- The totals are split 3-3 in Dodgers-Cubs games this season, even though the games are averaging 11 runs per.
- The overs are 7-2 at Wrigley Field this season.
Prop Board
- Dodgers SS Betts, who took an 0-fer Tuesday, is catching +135 to bat over 1.5 total bases.
