LA Dodgers -130:
The Dodgers won 7 of 9 meetings vs Pittsburgh last season and it looks like they stand a good chance to win the first meeting this year.
This is a pitching matchup between two lefties but looks like a big mismatch to me.
Kazuhisa Ishii, who is pitching for LA, is 3-0 this year and I believe will have his way with this Pittsburgh lineup.
Ishii did not allow a run in his first 2 major league starts this year and although he did allow 3 runs in his last start, you gotta remember that last start was in Coors field in Colorado...so even that was pretty impressive. Plus throw in the fact that it was the Rockies 2nd look at Ishii this season makes him look even more impressive. The first game facing Ishii, they only had 2 hits and struck out 10 times in just 5.2 innings.
Ishii may have one of the best curveball in baseball and of course is a southpaw which could mean big trouble for Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh vs lefty pitching overall is only hitting .231 as a team and even worse, they are only hitting .185 at home vs lefties. They are averaging just 2.5 Runs per game vs southpaws.
Jimmy Anderson, also a southpaw, goes for Pitt today. Anderson has pitched well in his first 3 starts today going 2-1 but remember that these games were against offenses struggling at the time (Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Mets)
The Dodgers are a team that continues to pound left handed pitching. They are batting .310 as a team vs lefties....a trend that is continuing from last year when they averaged a whopping 5.6 runs per game vs them.
Anderson has not faced LA this season yet, but last season had 2 starts vs the Dodgers. In those 2 starts, he got lit up for 11 runs and 15 hits in just 11 innings of work.
Also dug out some career averages of some Dodger players vs Anderson:
Grissom: .375
Lo Duka: .333
Green: .417
Jordan: .250
Karros .267
Beltre: .308
Grudzielanek: .286
As you can see, they hit Anderson very well.
I see this game as being one sided. The only reason I'm keeping it a one unit play instead of a 2 unit play is because I will never lay more than one unit on a game where I do not have the Home plate Ump info and also when playing in cold weather which I believe it's supposed to be around 50 degrees in Pitt...tends to even the game up a bit more.
Good luck!
