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Twins vs. Dodgers prediction: Bet on Los Angeles bats to stay hot
Our MLB betting expert is here to offer up his best Twins vs. Dodgers predictions and picks ahead of Wednesday’s finale of a two-game series slated to start at 10:10 p.m. ET.
The streaking Dodgers seek their 10th consecutive win when they look to finish off a sweep of the Twins. Los Angeles rolled to a 10-3 victory in the opener and has won 12 of its past 13 games.
Minnesota has lost back-to-back games and eight of its last 13 contests. The Twins have allowed nine or more runs four times during the stretch.
Twins vs. Dodgers Picks
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Twins vs Dodgers Predictions: The Analysis
Minnesota has lost back-to-back games and eight of its last 13 contests. The Twins have allowed nine or more runs four times during the stretch, while the Dodgers are streaking in the other direction.
Dodger Dominance
The Twins have dropped their last nine games against the Dodgers. They also haven’t fared well at Dodger Stadium, compiling a 1-6 regular-season mark, not to forget losing also three games in Los Angeles during the 1965 World Series.
Can Minnesota get off the mat after being drubbed so badly? Not looking likely with all the offensive explosions the Twins’ pitching staff has served up recently.
Los Angeles racked up 15 hits on Tuesday, including eight doubles and one homer. The Dodgers have scored at least seven runs on six occasions during their season-best nine-game winning streak.
Max Muncy’s bat is displaying life as he homered Tuesday for the third time this month. Muncy was 2-for-5 and has seen his batting average crawl upward to .178 as last season’s elbow injury now seems to be in the past. He is 9-for-24 in August.
The Dodgers also got Justin Turner (abdominal strain) back in the lineup Tuesday and he had two hits.
Our Pick: Dodgers -1.5 — FanDuel
Gray matter
Minnesota right-hander Sonny Gray gets the task of trying to limit the damage from Los Angeles hitters.
Gray, 32, is 1-3 with a 2.70 ERA in four career starts against the Dodgers. He has struck out 34 and walked eight in 26 2/3 innings. He has shut down Mookie Betts (3-for-24) and Muncy (0-for-8).
Gray (6-3, 3.19) has allowed just two runs and eight hits in 16 innings over his past three starts. He walked a season-worst five in his last outing, a no-decision against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Dodgers will go with right-hander Ryan Pepiot (1-0, 2.76). He has pitched just 16 1/3 innings over his four starts and has issued 12 walks while striking out 19.
Pepiot, who turns 25 on Aug. 21, hasn’t made a major league start since allowing one run in five innings to beat the Colorado Rockies on July 5. No matter how he fares, expect the Dodgers’ offense to make sure the run projection goes over.
Our Pick: Over 9 total runs
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Gallo going deep
Twins All-Star Byron Buxton clubbed his 27th homer of the season in the opener and is tied for third in the American League. He is a threat to go deep every night.
Shortstop Carlos Correa has been a disappointment from a power standpoint. The player making $35.1 million this season has just 13 homers with only one coming in the past 14 games.
Los Angeles has homer candidates all over the lineup. Not only has Muncy found his power stroke but so has Cody Bellinger, who hit two homers in Sunday’s win over the San Diego Padres and has driven in nine runs in August.
Will Smith is 8-for-15 with a homer over the past four games, Trea Turner has smacked three homers in the last 10 games and Freddie Freeman has gone 15 straight games without depositing a ball over the fence.
Freeman is 2-for-9 with five strikeouts against Muncy but look who has hit a homer against Gray: Newcomer Joey Gallo. Yes, we see Gallo (4-for-11 vs. Gray) hitting his first blast as a Dodger on Wednesday.
Our Pick: Joey Gallo to hit HR
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The NBA’s longest win streak is finally over after the Knicks suffered their first loss in nine games on Wednesday. Expect New York to start a new streak Friday against a team it dominated the last time they faced off.
The Knicks were playing like the best team in basketball during their lengthy win streak, posting the league’s best net rating (+17.3) with six double-digit victories in that eight-game run. That included a 23-point beat-down of the Bulls exactly a week ago, when New York drained 17 3s and saw three players score at least 22 points in an easy win.
Knicks vs. Bulls (7:30 p.m. Eastern) prediction: Knicks -5.5 (Caesars Sportsbook)
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That game marked the worst offensive showing of the season for Chicago (91 points), which has struggled with chemistry and spacing issues all year long. The Bulls rank dead last in 3-point attempts per game (28.8) and third-worst in offensive rebounding rate (23.6%), which leaves very few easy scoring chances for one of the NBA’s worst offenses.
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It’s the opposite story for the Knicks, who boast three legitimate shot-creators and also rank among the league leaders in points in the paint. Julius Randle (31 points) relentlessly attacked this Chicago defense in their first meeting before allowing RJ Barrett (27 points) to lead the way in the second affair — his fourth of five straight games with at least 22 points.
I don’t see this Knicks attack slowing down against one of the league’s most inconsistent defenses. And until Zach LaVine returns to his All-Star form, I’m skeptical of the Bulls’ offense showing up on Friday, too.
Knicks vs. Bulls pick: Knicks -5.5 (Caesars Sportsbook)
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After starting the season 21-4-1, it looked like the New Jersey Devils were going to run away with the Metropolitan Division as one of the very best teams in the NHL.
Not only were the Devils cruising, but their underlying metrics were elite. New Jersey was the best 5-on-5 team through the first quarter of the season.
Three weeks and one six-game losing streak later, and the Devils have fallen back to earth and are now two points behind the Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division.
The Devils were able to get off the schneid with a win over Florida on Wednesday, but the task doesn’t get any easier with the league-leading Boston Bruins in town.
New Jersey is a slight +102 home underdog against Boston starting at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and the NHL Network.
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Bruins vs. Devils prediction
Even though the Devils have struggled to get results over their last 10 contests, their underlying numbers don’t suggest there’s all that much wrong with how they’re playing. New Jersey isn’t posting the pace-setting numbers it did through Thanksgiving, but it’s still skating to the fifth-best expected goals rate and high-danger scoring chance rate in the league over its last 10 contests.
Those numbers should help ease any sense of panic that New Jersey could continue to fall back further into the pack as we head toward the New Year.
So if New Jersey is still tilting the ice in the right direction, what is the issue for the Devils?
For one thing, the Devs are struggling to find the back of the net like they did when they were rolling. New Jersey has scored just nine goals in its last five games, and four of those tallies came in a 4-2 victory over Florida on Wednesday. Over their last 10 games, the Devils rank 25th in the NHL with a 6.56% shooting percentage.
Additionally, the Devils are not getting the goaltending needed to stabilize them. New Jersey’s netminders were always thought to be the team’s biggest weakness, and that has started to show lately as the Devils rank 23rd in the NHL in 5-on-5 save percentage over the last 10 games.
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The Bruins, meanwhile, continue to roll. Boston is 7-1-2 over its last 10 contests and ranks third in the league over that span in expected goals rate and fourth in high-danger chance percentage. The Bruins pace the NHL with a +54 goal differential, which is 25 goals better than the team in second (Toronto).
But as impressive as Boston has been over its first 31 games of the season, the Bruins are playing on a back-to-back on Friday, while the Devils were off on Thursday night.
The Bruins are the better team in a vacuum, but this is a good buy-low spot on the Devils, who are still playing solid hockey but are just not getting the results.
Devils vs. Bruins pick
New Jersey Devils +102 (FanDuel)
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