The Los Angeles Dodgers dominated their southern neighbors, the San Diego Padres, during the regular season and Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Tuesday night wasn't much different. L.A. prevailed 5-3. Game 2 is tonight with the Dodgers as -190 favorites behind three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw. At BetMGM, 65% of the money is on Los Angeles but only 50% of the bets.
In the history of best-of-five postseason series, Game 1 winners have gone on to win the series 102 of 144 times (71%). In the Division Series with the cur rent 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at home have advanced 34 of 47 times (72%). On the updated series line, the Dodgers are -455 and the Padres +365. The favored exact result is a Los Angeles sweep at +185.
The 34-year-old Kershaw simply can't make it through a full regular season healthy at this point but was terrific in his 22 starts, going 12-3 with a 2.28 ERA (lowest mark in a 162-game season since 2016) and 0.94 WHIP. The future Hall-of-Famer has been excellent since coming off his second injured list stint on Sept. 1, pitching to a 5-0 record and1.54 ERA over his last seven starts, striking out 49 in 41 innings.
Kershaw made two starts vs. the Padres this year and was 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 12 innings. He is set at over/under 4.5 strikeouts tonight, 15.5 outs recorded, 3.5 hits allowed and 1.5 earned runs. Kershaw has had some issues in his playoff career, going 13-12 with a 4.19 ERA in 189.0 innings.