The NL West is the Wild, Wild West, indeed, as the regular season draws to an end and none of the teams in this hyper competitive division can grab a solid lead in an MLB odds battle that could down to the wire.
With less than 20 games left on the schedule most of the divisions in the MLB lines competition have long been sewn up. But not in the NL West. The longer the season goes on, the tighter this division race gets. As it stands now the San Diego Padres (82-62) managed to emerge from a grueling series against the Colorado Rockies (79-66), with a very slim 1.5 game lead over the San Francisco Giants (81-64).
However, the Padres continue their road trip in gritty St Louis while the Giants have the luxury of playing at home and hosting the sub-.500 Dodgers (72-73). By the time both of these series are over the Giants could be sitting atop the NL West MLB odds standings.
On Thursday night the Giants will host their division rival, the LA Dodgers, in what should be the highlight game of pretty thin night of MLB lines competition.
The Giants will start Jonathan Sanchez who’s enjoying a pretty good season on the mound. He’s 10-8 with a 3.29 ERA. He’s been lights out of late pitching 12 scoreless innings heading into this matchup and he’s given up just 19 runs in his past ten starts. He’ll be in top form on Thursday and a real challenge for Dodgers hitters.
LA will start veteran Ted Lilly who’s in the midst of an average year (8-10, 3.56 ERA). Like most of the LA’s pitching staff he hasn’t been great during the 2010 MLB odds action and he’s hit of rough patch of late. He’s lost his last two decisions and given up 12 earned runs in his past three starts.
The San Fran stadium should all hyped for this game and the Giants fans should be going nuts at the prospect of grabbing the NL West lead with two wins and two losses on the part of the Padres in the upcoming games.
Expect the atmosphere to be electric and home field advantage to truly mean something in this game.
Giants will win and put even more pressure on San Diego.