Playoff Baseball Betting for October 3, 2014
Busy day in playoff baseball for Friday with all four series in action. The Baltimore/Detroit Game 2 had a very early start time so we’ll cover the three remaining games in this post:
NATIONAL LEAGUE:
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS AT WASHINGTON NATIONALS:
Game 1 of the NL Divisional Series features what should be an excellent pitching matchup between the Giants’ Jake Peavy and the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg. Both pitchers have been in excellent form and Washington has been a freight train ever since mid season. The Nationals won 5 of 7 from the Giants this season including 2 of 3 in Washington. Giants are a very good road team (+9.3 units) and hit right handers very well this season (+10.5 units) so this price looks too high. We’ll take the underdog in what is much closer to a ‘coin flip’ game than the betting lines suggest.
BET SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS +170 OVER WASHINGTON NATIONALS
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS AT LOS ANGELES DODGERS:
The other National League playoff series begins with an excellent pitching matchup as well. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw will face Adam Wainwright who may have pitched better than anyone in baseball over the past month or so. Cards are right around break even against left handers but put up good offensive numbers against them. Kershaw has a losing record against the Cards over the course of his career and as good as he’s pitched down the stretch Adam Wainwright’s last 3 numbers are significantly better (0.37 ERA, 23 strikeouts in 24 innings). Price is based exclusively on Kershaw’s ‘name value’ and is simply too high.
BET ST. LOUIS CARDINALS +170 OVER LOS ANGELES DODGERS
AMERICAN LEAGUE:
KANSAS CITY ROYALS AT LOS ANGELES ANGELS:
Royals stole Game 1 in extra innings but all of those innings are going to take a toll at some point. Statistically, the matchup between Yordano Ventura and Matt Shoemaker is pretty much even but the Angels have won 8 of 11 Shoemaker starts at Anaheim Stadium. Kansas City actually has a 4-3 lead in head to head games this season including a 2-2 mark in Anaheim but this looks like a game that the Angels have to win. We think they will and will lay the price here.
BET LOS ANGELES ANGELS -155 OVER KANSAS CITY ROYALS
