Philadelphia Phillies/ LA Dodgers
The Phillies are 11-5 in their last 16 meetings vs the Dodgers but that stat is very misleading. This season the Dodgers are 4-3 vs the Phillies so as you can see the majority of the Phillies wins in the last 16 meetings came the previous season. Hamels will be starting tonight for the Phillies and he is 0-3 in his last 3 starts with a 7.98 ERA. In his career Hamels has pitched against the Dodgers 4 times and is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA. Great numbers against the Dodgers but his numbers in the last 3 games is what scares me. As we all know Hamels had a child right after his last start so his head could not have been 100% into his last start and that showed with Hamels pitching 5 innings and giving up 4 runs while taking the loss. Things wouldn't get much easier with Hamels since the birth because he would have to be dealing with the lack of sleep and physical exhaustion of dealing with a child as anyone that has had a child can attest to. All things are therefore pointing at a Dodger win BUT I also have some concerns with the Dodgers here. Kershaw is pitching the opening game for the Dodgers and he is 0-0 in his last 3 starts with an amazing ERA of 2.16 BUT in his career vs the Phillies he is 0-3 in 4 starts with an ERA of 6.64! Not exactly the stat I wanted to see if I was considering betting on the Dodgers. The main reason for that ERA being so high was a bad game he pitched against the Phillies during the 2008 season in which he gave up 6 runs in 4 innings so with that being said I am going to rely more on how both Hamels and Kershaw have pitched down the stretch this season for their teams as opposed to how Kershaw pitched during his rookie season. I am going to take the Dodgers at home tonight at -135.
Best of luck tonight everyone
Hot Forum Topics
