Giants vs. Dodgers Predictions
The San Francisco Giants look to get back in the race for the NL West when they visit the Los Angeles Dodgers in a potential postseason preview at Chavez Ravine.
Here’s a complete preview, including early MLB picks.
San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
Sunday, July 24, 2022 – 04:10 PM EDT at Dodger Stadium
What to Expect From These Teams
Don’t look now but July it’s almost over and the Dodgers have a comfortable 10-game lead over the Padres in the NL West at press time, as well as the best record in the National League.
Led by a balanced offense full of powerful bats and with decent pitching, particularly their starters, the Dodgers fans are dreaming of October once again. Of course, there’s a long way to go but so far so good in LA.
The Giants, on the other hand, need to put together some wins if they want to stay alive in the race for first place in the NL West. San Francisco is 12.5 games behind Los Angeles in the division at the time of this writing and facing them will test how serious they are in their postseason aspirations. They have almost the entire second half of the season left but they can’t afford to have a slow start after the All-Star break.
The Dodgers will have the support of their faithful fans at Dodger Stadium but this promises to be a very competitive game. The Giants will turn to Alex Wood (6-7, 4.20 ERA, 1.24 WHIP) while the Dodgers still haven’t named their starter. We do know that it won’t be Mitch White (Thursday’s starter), which leaves Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin and Tyler Anderson as options. It will likely be by Kershaw or Gonsolin but be on the lookout for updates.
Wood Back in LA
As mentioned above, the Giants are going with Alex Wood (3.10 FIP). The Giants are 9-9 in Wood’s 18 starts, costing bettors 4.1 units of profit. However, he seems to be turning a corner.
Wood allowed three runs (zero earned) on four hits with seven strikeouts and zero walks over 4 2/3 innings to get a no-decision in an 8-5 win against the Brewers on July 15 and he is now 1-0 with an 0.54 ERA and 0.74 in his last three starts.
A former Dodger, Wood is 2-3 with a 3.35 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in nine career appearances (seven starts) against his former team and he is 17-10 with a 3.09 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 53 career appearances (41 starts) at Dodger Stadium. The left-hander has a 3.27 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 10-night starts this season.
How to Bet This Game
At press time we don’t have betting odds for this game since this is an early look at it but over at FiveThirtyEight, they already have the Dodgers at -194 based on our calculations (they suggest the Dodgers will win this game 66 percent of the time).
There might be value on the moneyline for the Giants if the best sportsbooks open them at plus money but the Under might be the way to go. Right now, the Giants have a 34 percent chance to win the game according to FiveThirtyEight, which equals a +194 moneyline.
Sunday’s weather report calls for a partly cloudy evening with 6 km/h winds expected to come blowing out to the right field.
San Francisco’s projected lineup has just three batters with a Weighted on-Base Average (wOBA) above .340, three batters with Isolated Power (ISO) above .185 and five batters with a strikeout rate above 21 percent while Los Angeles’ projected lineup has four batters with a Weighted on-Base Average (wOBA) above .340 and four batters with Isolated Power (ISO) above .185.
Wood is pitching well as of late and he’s had success against the Dodgers throughout his career and at Dodger Stadium and LA will likely go with Clayton Kershaw (2.47 FIP) or Tony Gonsolin (3.39 FIP) on Sunday.
And in case their starters have a short outing, the Dodgers have an excellent bullpen. At press time, their relievers rank 11th in Win Probability Added (WPA) from the bullpen at 2.09. Take the Under on Sunday afternoon!
MLB Pick: Under 7.5 (-105) at BetOnline