\nThe\nChicago Cubs are in the hunt for command of their National League\nCentral division, and they\u2019ll be looking to bolster their claim\ndown in California as they visit this season\u2019s monsters of the\nNational League, the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For themselves, the Dodgers have been in the middle of a mild downturn of late, although they remain firmly in lead of their National League West division, at 9.5 games ahead of their nearest rival. This four-game set promises to be an exciting one, and there are a lot of questions to answer, so let\u2019s dive in for a closer look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThere\u2019s\nno question that this series is a matchup between two very strong\nteams, but the Dodgers are the best team in the NL, and have been\nping-ponging back and forth with the Houston Astros for the top rank\nin baseball. Online bookmakers have the Thursday night series opener\ngame line at Cubs +150, Dodgers -170, but notably jumps to Cubs +175,\nDodgers -210 on the 5 Innings Line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nThe\nstarters for the opener are the mostly solid Jon Lester for the Cubs,\nversus Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers, who, as those 5th Innings\nLine numbers indicate, no one wants to bet against. Kershaw is 5-1\nfor the season so far, with an even 3.00 ERA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAnd\nwith reliable bats in Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy and others driving in\nruns to back up the pitchers, the Dodgers have certainly landed on a\nwinning formula. Meanwhile, the Cubs starting rotation has been good\nbut inconsistent. The pitching staff\u2019s team ERA is 3.87, good for\n3rd in the NL, but there are some holes in the bullpen, and their\nstrongest starter, Cole Hamels, isn\u2019t scheduled to start this\nseries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, the Cubs lineup is full of World Series all-stars like Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez who continue to provide consistent production for the team, but with all the factors in place, this will still be an uphill battle for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nAs\npreviously mentioned, Clayton Kershaw\u2019s start in the opener will\nget plenty of attention. He\u2019s a wear-\u2018em-out pitcher, known for\ngoing deep into games, and giving up runs comes with the territory.\nIf the Cubs can play strategic and get to Kershaw early, they may\nhave a shot at flipping the script on the Dodgers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nWhile\nthe Cubs are likely to be listed as underdogs for all four games in\nthe series, Friday night\u2019s game could be particularly interesting.\nThe Dodgers have yet to list their probably starters for the rest of\nthe series, but Kyle Hendricks is scheduled to get the start for the\nCubs on Friday night. Hendrick is trailing just behind team leader\nCole Hamels in just about every stat (with the notable exception of\ngiving up fewer than half the BBs), and with some run support behind\nhim, could very well run away with the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSo\nwhile the Dodgers are no doubt favored, a sweep is much more of a\nlong shot. Some strategic underdog betting could make this series\neven more exciting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chicago Cubs are in the hunt for command of their National League Central division, and they\u2019ll be looking to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5718,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716\/revisions\/5718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}