Nationals vs Dodgers MLB Betting + Handicapping Picks
This is a match-up between the two best records in the National League. The Dodgers are fresh off of their first two home losses of the season at the hand of the Atlanta Braves, but that isn’t to say they didn’t play well. Matt Kemp hit another home run, pushing his league-leading total to 10.
WAS: Ross Detwiler (2-0, .056 ) v LAD: Clayton Kershaw (1-0, 1.61)
Date/Time: Friday, April 27, 2012, 10:10 PM ET
Venue: Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles
Broadcast: Fox Sports
Spread: OFF
Over/Under: OFF
Meanwhile, the Nationals are a team that has yet to lose a series thus far in the season. They are playing way above expectations currently, and are led by their dominant pitching staff.
Washington will hand the ball to lefty Ross Detwiler in the opener. The Southwest Missouri State products has gotten off to a better start than most expected of him this season. In the three starts that he’s made, he has only allowed runs in just one of them. That will get your ERA down in a hurry. The only one where that got away was against Cincinnati where he left some balls up in the zone and the Reds punished him for it. He gave up four unearned runs in that loss. Detwiler’s only issue has been not getting deep in games thus far, though he has 15 strikeouts in 16 innings.
The Dodgers will counter that pitching prowess with last year’s Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw who has really only had one minor hiccup in the early part of the season, and that came against the Padres. It was a game that the Dodgers still won, but Kershaw wasn’t missing as many bats as he’s accustomed to. The southpaw gave up eight hits and four runs in that outing. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
Other than that though he has been his typical self. Taking the ball deep into game, and piling up the strikeouts. You expect him to keep up his good work against a less than stellar Washington offense.
Players to watch for:
Nationals – Ian Desmond .280/2/7/.321
This would be Ryan Zimmerman’s place if he were going to be in the lineup. He has four hits in nine tries against the southpaw, but instead this will be a chance for Desmond to build on some early success off of Clayton. He has two hits in six at bats against him. Including a triple.
Dodgers – Matt Kemp .449/10/23/.513
No one on the Dodgers has faced Detwiler more than twice. Orlando Hudson has two at-bats against him, and John Baker has one. This puts us right back to Matt Kemp who is the best player on the planet right now, and it doesn’t even seem close at this point.
Matt’s Free Prediction: Los Angeles– Definitely a pitching duel here. But the Dodgers have the bigger bats and that will be all the difference in this one.
