The baseball gods have continued to bestow their blessings on the fans as for the second time in just over a week, two of the MLB’s best teams are once again opposing each other. After the (14-6) Los Angeles Dodgers continued to roll, taking two of three from the (12-10) San Diego Padres in San Diego, the two teams met again for a four-game set that began on Thursday.
As the series shifted to LA, it has been the Padres through the first two games, that have gotten the better of their rivals, ensuring themselves at worst a road split with what had been the best team in baseball. All eyes will be on the Dodgers in game three today (9.10 PM ET Saturday) to see how the team rebounds from this recent skid. Can LA right their offensive ship or will the Padres’ lethal combination of good pitching, defense, and timely hitting continue to win out? Read on for our game three predictions, preview and betting picks.
NL West…More Like NL’s Best
There are the Dodgers, then the Padres and then the rest of the league jostling for position among baseball’s greats. As it would turn out, three of those teams don’t just reside in the NL West but in the state of California itself. After the Padres’ win over the Dodgers left LA losers of four of their last five, it is the (13-7) San Francisco Giants who are nearing the top spot in the NL West.
The Giants have been playing great and pitching phenomenally, with six shutouts already on year. Is this level of pitching prowess sustainable? Perhaps. But as the Giants continue to stand their ground among baseball’s powerhouses, it is a wonder how long until either the Padres or Dodgers pull away. Prior to San Diego’s recent two-game winning streak against LA, the Padres had gone on a skid much like the Dodgers’ own, losing five of their last six. Seemingly, the Padres have flipped the switch and finally feel like the team they were expected to be.
With the Dodgers battling the war of attrition right now as well, this is the perfect time for San Diego to make a run. LA’s injury woes won’t last forever and when the team does get healthy, look out. Because even with the injuries piling up, the Dodgers have played the Padres tough and really are just a couple of big hits away from this series having gone in a different direction. LA will still have a chance to right the ship over these next two games as they’ll turn to Trevor Bauer and Dustin May.
Today’s game three matchup is particularly intriguing as Bauer will oppose Blake Snell. Bauer and Snell were two of MLB’s most high-profile signings this offseason as the two outspoken pitchers moved teams. This is the second meeting in a week for these two NL West opponents. In their first outing, both pitched well but it came down until the bullpens. San Diego’s was perfect. LA’s gave up three runs.
Since moving from Tampa Bay to San Diego, Blake Snell has picked up right where he left off. The former Cy Young award winner isn’t quite having that kind of year in 2021 but his numbers have been solid. Snell hasn’t been able to pitch out of the fifth inning yet this season, something the Padres will hope to change soon. As for Bauer, the former Cleveland Indian has been extremely effective, winning two of his four starts and striking out 36 in 26 innings pitched. While he has given up seven runs, Bauer has only ceded 10 total hits. In no single outing has he given up more than three. That is very impressive and shows Bauer has transitioned easily to his new team.
Our Preview’s San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers Predictions & Game 3 Betting Picks Verdict
Before the 2021 season began, the Padres took huge strides to build a team with one primary focus: Win the World Series. San Diego knew that in order to accomplish this goal they’d need a team capable of beating the Dodgers in a five-game series. Well, we won’t quite know yet if the Padres’ gamble paid off but we do have a sample size of five games between these two divisional rivals, three of which have been won by San Diego. Had this been a best-of-five, the Padres would be advancing in the NL playoffs. As such, these were just a handful of much too early regular season games to assign any sort of meaningful outcome. LA has been hurt and San Diego caught them in the middle of an offensive black hole. One of MLB’s best offenses has yet to muster more than three runs in a single game of late. Their pitching has been capable, even recording two shutouts over the last six games but the bats have gone cold. It has cost the Dodgers, big time.
The Padres too came off their skid but they came into LA confident nonetheless. Now, they have won the first two of this four game set. While we don’t anticipate a sweep, the Bauer/Snell matchup is pretty down the middle. If LA can’t snap this cold streak, even another ace level outing from Bauer seemingly won’t be enough.
So these are the Padres vs Dodgers predictions for this preview for today’s Game 3 MLB clash:
- Take the Padres on the moneyline @ best odds of +133 (Intertops) or +132 (BetOnline).
- For the total runs, go over 7 @ best odds of -115 with BetOnline.
Marilee writes on NFL, MLB, NBA & tennis for USA Betting. Another area of her sporting journalistic expertise is pro wrestling. A native of Philadelphia and a big Eagles fan, she has been a sports writer for many major websites including Bleacher Report and Rant Sports. She started her journalistic career early, as sports editor for her college newspaper.