NL Baseball Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs
The red hot Los Angeles Dodgers wrap up a weekend series and it’s been more of the same for the hottest team in baseball-they can sweep the four game series with a victory today. The Dodgers have been so successful over the past couple of months it borders on ridiculous-they’re 21-6 since the first of July and have shown little sign of cooling off. They could continue their rampage into their next series as they head to St. Louis to face the suddenly vulnerable Cardinals. The Cubs have shown some promise this season but are back in their usual late season form trying to avoid a last place finish in the NL Central. They currently hold a 3 game advantage over the last place Milwaukee Brewers.
Los Angeles will start righthander Steven Fife and while he’s not on the level of the top guys in their pitching rotation like Zack Greinke or Clayton Kershaw he’s definitely capable. Fife has a 2.76 ERA in 8 starts this season with the Dodgers splitting wins and losses when he’s on the hill. In his last three starts he’s been very solid with a 2.00 ERA but the Dodgers have lost two of those starts. The Cubs will counter with Carlos Villanueva-he’s been mediocre all year and has been hit especially hard lately. In his last three starts he has an 8.22 ERA and a 1.957 WHIP with the Cubs losing all three of those games. The Cubs have lost 9 of his 13 starts this season including 5 of 8 starts at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs are getting some support in the marketplace, probably due to the old ‘betting against a sweep’ thing. At this point, however, we just can’t see going against the red hot Dodgers who’ve beaten the Cubs in all three of their head to head games this season. With Arizona just 4.5 games back they can’t afford to let the Diamondbacks back into the competitive mix atop the division. Look for the Dodgers to complete the sweep here and head into St. Louis in a strong position to completely take over the NL West lead. Would much rather be *on* the Dodgers’ freight train than in front of it.
BET LOS ANGELES DODGERS (FIFE) -130 OVER CHICAGO CUBS (VILLANUEVA)