The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken back control of the National League West with a third straight win on Tuesday, and now they’ll aim for a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds behind Shohei Ohtani on Wednesday.
We’ll explain in our Reds vs. Dodgers predictions why L.A. should be in the driver’s seat after two lousy showings by this Cincinnati offense, and how it should match up quite well with Nick Lodolo.
Without further ado, let’s hand out some MLB picks for Wednesday, August 27.
Reds vs Dodgers prediction
Reds vs Dodgers best bet: Dodgers First Five Innings -0.5 (-135)
The Cincinnati Reds are dealing with some serious strikeout issues at the absolute worst time imaginable. The Los Angeles Dodgers have racked up a whopping 23 punch-outs across the first two games of this series, including Tuesday’s game which was started by a low-strikeout arm in Clayton Kershaw, and now they have to deal with Shohei Ohtani.
The flamethrower has barely pitched this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery last season, but in 27 1/3 innings we’ve more or less seen the Ohtani we’re used to.
He’s pitched to a bunch more fly balls – something that could easily regress to the mean as he works more frames, but it hasn’t seemed to make a huge difference on account of his friendly .337 Expected Slugging Percentage and low .234 Expected Batting Average.
The righty has also critically struck out 30.4% of the opponents he’s faced, continuing on with a his dominant numbers in that area, and now with the Reds struggling to make contact he should be in for a real treat – particularly given Cincinnati tailors its offense around contact instead of power.
On the flip side, I’m still not very sold on Nick Lodolo. The Reds continue to run him out there to decent success, perhaps due to the fact that he can avoid the toils of his home park with his ground-balling ways, but there are clearly some ways to get to the lefty.
He’s struggling to miss many bats, which is never a good thing when you’re facing a team that’s slugging the lights out with a .203 Isolated Power in the last two weeks. That goes doubly when you look at his brutal .411 xSLG, which is up almost 60 points from last season.
Lodolo is a strike-thrower through and through with few walks and strikeouts, hoping to rack up outs on contact. It’s just not a very winning formula against the Dodgers, and even with a whopping 11 punchouts versus L.A. a month ago he still coughed up seven baserunners and two runs.
L.A. has honed in the strikeout issues in the last month, and without a hefty amount of punchouts he’s going to be behind the proverbial 8-ball here. Factor in that he’s making his first start back from injury, too, and I think L.A. is the clear side here.
Reds vs Dodgers same-game parlay (SGP)
We backed Andy Pages on Tuesday, and we’ll head right back to the well on Wednesday in yet another glorious spot for the young Dodgers outfielder.
Pages had his third multi-hit effort in six games on Tuesday, bringing his average over that span to .333 with a pair of doubles and three homers.
He’s also gone a brilliant 6-for-9 with a .537 xBA against curveballs from lefties this season – the primary offering from Lodolo – and has most notably only whiffed five times on 19 swings at the pitch this season.
As a free-swinger that won’t take walks, he should be in an excellent spot to do damage against a very hittable lefty, and on the flip side it’s hard to ignore how the free-swinging Reds have failed to put the ball in play lately.
Ohtani did strike out just four Reds last time they faced off, but he only worked three innings and looks to be almost fully stretched back out.
He struck out 15 in his first two outings of the month which took him across just 8 1/3 frames, so while he ran into trouble at Coors Field last time out I think we want to read into those performances as an indicator of how Wednesday will go.
Reds vs Dodgers odds
- Moneyline: Cincinnati +175 | Los Angeles -210
- Run line: Cincinnati +1.5 (-120) | Los Angeles -1.5 (+100)
- Over/Under: Over 8.5 (-120) | Under 8.5 (+100)
Reds vs Dodgers trend
The Los Angeles Dodgers have hit the 1st Five Innings (F5) Moneyline in 12 of their last 15 games at home (+12.00 Units / 45% ROI). Find more MLB betting trends for Reds vs. Dodgers.
How to watch Reds vs Dodgers and game info
| Location | Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA |
| Date | Wednesday, August 27, 2025 |
| First pitch | 8:40 p.m. ET |
| TV | FDSN Ohio, SNLA |
| Reds starting pitcher | Nick Lodolo (8-6, 3.05 ERA) |
| Dodgers starting pitcher | Shohei Ohtani (0-1, 4.61 ERA) |
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Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
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