The Dodgers are looking to avoid a small disaster. They dropped their first two games against the Pirates and are now aiming to salvage a win Thursday in the series finale.
Los Angeles' offense came to life in a 10-6 loss Wednesday evening, which was enough to swing the odds in their favor for Thursday's matchup at PNC Park.
After going into Wednesday's game as slight underdogs, LA is favored with Walker Buehler taking the mound against Pirates starter Bailey Falter. Here's what the odds look like according to BetMGM:
Run line
Dodgers -1.5: -115
Pirates +1.5: -105
Money line
Dodgers: -185
Pirates: +150
Total
Over 9 runs: -120
Under 9 runs: +100
Prediction
The book is buying into the Dodgers' offensive performance from Wednesday and actually has them favored to win by more than one run against Falter. The Pirates starter has allowed just five runs in 27 innings over his last four starts and he's rocking a 3.22 ERA for the season.
We're going to lean away from the book on this one though. The Dodgers were good at the plate Wednesday, but it wasn't enough to fully buy in that they'll knock around someone pitching as well as Falter has this season. Until then we're going to take the Pirates on the run line and the under.
Of course, we were way wrong in Wednesday's game where we had the Pirates winning a low-scoring game. There's more evidence lately that the Dodgers are going to play a low-scoring game than another high-scoring one though, so we'll keep leaning into that for one more game.
Pirates 5, Dodgers 3
