{"id":16385,"date":"2011-07-08T15:44:31","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T20:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16385"},"modified":"2011-07-08T15:44:31","modified_gmt":"2011-07-08T20:44:31","slug":"opening-game-of-3-game-set-padres-travel-to-l-a-to-face-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/opening-game-of-3-game-set-padres-travel-to-l-a-to-face-dodgers-16385\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening Game of 3 Game Set: Padres Travel to L.A. To Face Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Diego Padres (40-49) AT Los Angeles Dodgers (38-51)<\/strong>
\nJuly 8th, 2011 at 10:10 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 LAD -130, SD +110<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 LAD -120, SD -100<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 6.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 6.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 SD- Mat Latos; LAD- Chad Billingsley<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Ethier went 1 for 3 last night and is batting .313 on the season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Dodgers had dropped 5 straight going into their last game against the Mets, but they were finally able to prevail, in impressive fashion, disposing of the Mets 6-0 last night.\u00a0 Starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw once again recorded a quality start, as he pitched 8 innings of the shutout, while striking out 9 batters.\u00a0 He has more strikeouts than innings pitched this season, just as he did last season (212 Ks in 204 IP).<\/p>\n

Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp had a two run double and Tony Gwinn Jr. went 3 of 4 with a stolen base.\u00a0 Andre Ethier was 1 for 3.\u00a0 Second baseman Aaron Miles drove in two runs as well on a double.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely needed a win. We hit well, played defense well,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cEverybody is a little bit happier. Maybe this will spark us back to the good old days.\u201d<\/p>\n

For two teams so far under .500, there is a relative importance to this game.\u00a0 If the Dodgers are able to complete a 3 game sweep, they will pass San Diego in the standings.\u00a0 In the last series against San Diego, however, the Dodgers managed only 2 runs in the last 2 home games of the matchup.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Padres have come on lately, and before a loss last night had won 10 of their last 13.\u00a0 Sending Mat Latos to the mound may not be the best remedy, given he has an ERA over 4 (4.26) and a losing record of 5-9.\u00a0 He has yet to win at Dodger stadium, where he is 0-3 with a 4.50 ERA.\u00a0 Last outing, he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings in a loss to the Mariners.\u00a0 His last three innings of work in that one, however, he did not even give up a hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he got going, it was lights out,\u201d catcher Nick Hundley remarked.<\/p>\n

Matt Kemp has struggled against Latos.\u00a0 He is 1 of 9 against Mat Latos, but he is 12 of 25 with a HR and 2 RBIs this season against the Padres.\u00a0 Tony Gwinn Jr. is 6 for 15 against his former team this season, as well.<\/p>\n

Chad Billingsley comes into tonight’s contest with a 7-7 record and a 4.15 ERA.\u00a0 Last year was a rebound year for the former Giants ace, as he improved his ERA by roughly half a run from his 2009 campaign (though his W-L record remained the same at 12-11).\u00a0 Last season he cut his walk and homer rates significantly, and after the All-Star break he gave up only one home run in NINETY SIX innings.\u00a0 Billingsely finished 16th among NL qualifying pitchers in Support-Nuetral Winning Percentage.\u00a0 It was the lack of offensive production that hurt Billingsley’s record, not poor pitching.<\/p>\n

Billingsley was going for his third consecutive win on Sunday, but he gave up 3 runs in a 3-1 road loss to the Angels.\u00a0 He had a 1 hitter going until the 7th inning.<\/p>\n

This is Billingsley’s first matchup against the Padres in 2011, a team against which he is 0-3 with a 6.61 ERA in his last three starts, although last season he went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The San Diego Padres are 10-5 SU in their last 15 games and the total has gone UNDER In 6 of their last 9 games.\u00a0 The Padres are 5-10 SU in their last 15 road games while the total has again gone UNDER in 11 of the last 13 against the LA Dodgers.\u00a0 The Padres are 9-4 SU in their last 13 games against the Dodgers and the total has again gone UNDER in 6 of the last 7 on the road against the Dodgers.\u00a0 The Padres are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games on the road against the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Dodgers are 1-5 SU in their last 6 games and the total has gone UNDER In 4 of their last 5 games.\u00a0 It has also gone UNDER in 5 of the last 6 home games while the Dodgers are 2-6 SU in their last 8 games at home.\u00a0 The Dodgers are 4-9 SU in their last 13 against the San Diego Padres.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 11 of the last 13 games against the Padres whlie the total has gone UNDER in 6 of their last 7 at home, as well.\u00a0 The Dodgers are 2-5 SU in their last 7 home games against the Padres.<\/p>\n

Given the low total of 6.5 and the fact that both pitcher’s have ERAs over 4, I expect the total on this one to go ‘over.’\u00a0 While every single betting trend points towards betting on under, handicappers may have over compensated their total on this one, as I think the over is a very good bet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Diego Padres (40-49) AT Los Angeles Dodgers (38-51) July 8th, 2011 at 10:10 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 LAD -130, SD +110 Current Line:\u00a0 LAD -120, SD -100 Opening Total:\u00a0 6.5 Current Total:\u00a0 6.5 SP:\u00a0 SD- Mat Latos; LAD- Chad Billingsley The Dodgers had dropped 5 straight going into their last game against the Mets, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":5026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[429,891],"class_list":["post-16385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-san-diego-padres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16386,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16385\/revisions\/16386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}