Barking Dog: Dodgers vs. Giants 6/10/22

Los Angeles Dodgers (37-20) vs. San Francisco Giants (30-26)

When: 10:15 p.m., Friday, June 10

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco

Moneyline: LAD -150/SF +125 (BetNow – Get a 100% bonus up to $500 when you use bonus code PREDICTEM)

Runline: Dodgers -1.5/Giants +1.5

Total: 8

Starting Pitchers: Walker Buehler (6-2, 3.84 ERA, 1.31 WHIP) vs. Jakob Junis (3-1, 2.51 ERA, 0.93 WHIP)

Starting Off Late

Actually, the schedule is the biggest saving grace that the Giants have to their name at the moment, as they’ve got a long way to go against the Dodgers and plenty of time to make up the slow start to this year’s series between the two teams. This is the final year of the unbalanced schedule, and the setup means that the Dodgers and Giants will see each other 17 more times before the end of the season.
That begs the question: can the Giants figure out how to get the better of the Dodgers? San Francisco proved itself to be right behind Los Angeles a year ago when it lost to the Dodgers in five games after winning home-field advantage in the playoffs, and the Giants are still within striking distance of the Dodgers this year, especially if San Francisco can manage a weekend sweep. That’s a fair amount of pressure for a June series, but that’s life in the NL West. When you have to play the Dodgers 19 times and deal with the Padres as well as dangerous lesser teams in Arizona and Colorado, every divisional series matters. The Giants are going to have a lot of work ahead of them if they hope to catch up to Los Angeles.

Struggling Ace

What is going on with Walker Buehler at the moment? The Dodgers’ hurler had supplanted Clayton Kershaw as the team’s ace a year ago and looked like he was going to anchor this pitching staff for years to come, but he’s got an ERA of 19.29 over his past two starts, giving up four runs to the Pirates and five to the Mets, getting chased after 2.1 innings in the latter situation. Only one of his past five starts has been a quality start, and the Dodgers didn’t need it that day anyway, as the offense provided nine runs of support in a comfortable win.
Los Angeles has mostly surged this season and put itself in a position to contend for another pennant and World Series crown, but the Dodgers have got to get more out of Buehler. If he’s pitching as well as he can, the Dodgers go from a good team to a championship contender. When he’s not pitching well, the Dodgers are missing a part of themselves that really makes them a special team. Buehler is too good not to solve this on his own, but for now, he’s not himself.

Life on the Road

The Giants might have been handed a win by the schedule makers because there’s no reason that the Dodgers should be going through their current travel schedule. There’s nothing wrong with playing on the road in consecutive series, but usually, that’s done with a much more reasonable travel schedule, such as going from playing in Philadelphia to playing in New York. Playing in Chicago one day and San Francisco the next isn’t ideal for anyone, and there is a real chance that the Giants can catch the Dodgers napping after Los Angeles had to fly back to California on Thursday following the end of a series in Chicago. There were plenty of teams that the Dodgers could have faced that were much closer to Chicago than the Giants, and the fact that they didn’t mean this is the type of situation that screams schedule loss.

Betting Trends

• The Dodgers are 6-1 in their past seven road games.
• The Dodgers are 37-14 in their past 51 against the NL West.
• The Giants are 50-24 in their past 74 games against the NL West.
• The Giants are 11-4 in their past 15 Friday games.
• The under is 5-1 in the Dodgers’ past six road games.
• The under is 14-2 in the Dodgers’ past 16 Friday games.
• The under is 3-0-1 in the Giants’ past four games overall.
• The under is 3-1-1 in the Giants’ past five against the NL West.
• The Dodgers have won 14 of the last 20 meetings in San Francisco.
• The under is 5-2 in the past seven meetings in San Francisco.

Weather Report

With temperatures sitting at 68 degrees and winds pushing 13 miles per hour to right-center field, the ball might carry a bit further and push this toward the over.

Dan’s pick

The Giants have value as well as an ace who’s not struggling to maintain anything, which gives them a bit of an edge in this matchup. Plus, San Francisco was at home preparing for this game, while Los Angeles had to cross two time zones just to get to the stadium.

This is exactly the kind of game you think can’t hurt you as punter, but it can end up problematic for the team that’s expected to succeed. The Giants should be rested, the Dodgers haven’t really prepared themselves to come back to California and play.

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