The Daily Sweat: Dodgers, Padres still looking up at the Giants in NL West race
The San Diego Padres struck one of the first big blows before the trade deadline, acquiring All-Star second baseman Adam Frazier from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Not that the Padres needed more talent.
The Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers are practically fantasy teams at this point. They're both overflowing with brand-name players. It seems likely they could each add more before the deadline too.
And neither team leads the NL West.
The San Francisco Giants are putting together a fantastic story. They surprisingly lead the NL West by three games, yet they're +115 underdogs at BetMGM for a home game against the Dodgers on Wednesday.
The Giants have taken four of five games from the Dodgers since the start of last week. On Tuesday the pitching kept them in the game, then in the eighth inning a bad throwing error by Cody Bellinger allowed the Giants to score the go-ahead run. They won 2-1 as +100 underdogs. Their record is now a gaudy 63-37. San Francisco has the best record in baseball.
The Padres, who beat the Oakland A's 7-4 behind homers from Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado with Frazier going 2-for-5, are 5.5 games back. If you just looked at the rosters, you might pick the Dodgers or Padres to overcome the deficits to win the division. BetMGM's odds have the Dodgers as a surprisingly heavy -190 favorite to win the division. The Giants are +200 and the Padres are way back at +550 (and might be a good value bet).
The Giants have been overlooked all season, and they are underdogs again on Wednesday. All they do is keep winning.
Here's a first look at the betting slate for Wednesday:
What's happening in Tokyo?
There's some men's and women's basketball, though the United States women's team doesn't play until Thursday (they're 20.5-point favorites over Japan). There's soccer going on too, and more non-traditional betting sports. Including table tennis, which we know people love to bet.
Who cashed tickets on Tuesday (or Wednesday morning)?
Hey, it's United States men's basketball! Team USA got a win over Iran while you were sleeping, and covered a 39.5-point spread in the process. They won 120-66. Maybe that's a sign of things to come at the Tokyo Olympics.
The biggest win in MLB was probably the Giants over the Dodgers, but the Atlanta Braves' 12-5 win over the New York Mets keeps them within shouting distance of an NL East race nobody wants to win. The Braves are four games back of the Mets. The Philadelphia Phillies, the other team in the race, lost to the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night because truly nobody wants to win this division.
What's up in MLB on Wednesday?
There is some afternoon baseball. The Cleveland Indians are -115 favorites against the St. Louis Cardinals in an early game, the Minnesota Twins are -145 favorites against the Detroit Tigers (take the underdog there) and the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays have a doubleheader after getting rained out on Tuesday night.
What's the best bet?
The Cincinnati Reds did very well for us in this spot yesterday as an underdog (as did the Yankees and Brewers for some other Daily Sweat picks), and they're -110 against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. Let's take the Reds again, against a Cubs team that is not good and will be unloading everything at the trade deadline.
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