Blake Snell Will Cause Issues for Dodgers Today
Blake Snell hasn’t had the season he hoped for so far with the San Diego Padres, but he has a chance to turn that around tonight in his start against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That may seem strange to read, considering the Dodgers are second in the majors in runs per game at 5.21, but they’ve struggled mightily against left handed pitchers this season. When comparing their splits against righties vs their splits against lefties, the difference is night and day.
Against right handed pitchers, Los Angeles ranks sixth in batting average (.251), third in OPS (.772), and second in runs scored (271). If you look at those same three statistics when they face lefties, they rank 23rd in batting average (.224), 19th in OPS (.710), and eighth in runs scored (104).
Those numbers show a stark difference between how they perform against left handed pitchers, and tonight they’ll be facing a tough lefty in Snell.
WynnBET has the Dodgers set as slight -120 favorites, with Snell and the Padres set as +100 underdogs. Last night’s game between the two teams ended a streak of 150 straight games which saw Los Angeles set as the betting favorite. The Dodgers return to being the favored team in tonight’s matchup.
Snell is on pace to have the worst ERA of his career, but there are some positives for him to lean on. He’s faced the Dodgers twice already this season, and gave up only two runs in each of those games. The two games in which he received the most damage, was his last start against the Rockies which came at the infamous Coors Field, and a May 30 start against the Houston Astros who have the best offense in baseball. Snell gave up seven runs in both of those games, which will kill anyone’s ERA.
Blake Snell, Wicked 88mph Back Foot Slider. ?? pic.twitter.com/v6j3e4u6M0
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 25, 2021
If you think Snell will have a bounce back game tonight, WynnBET has a player prop set for how many earned runs he’ll give up. They have the number set at 1.5 with the over (-170) favored to the under (+125). I have faith that Snell will return to form tonight, so I’ll take the under 1.5 earned runs at +125.
The Padres can guarantee a series victory with a win tonight, which will prove important if they want to remain close to the Dodgers in the race for the NL West crown.