This series has got what it deserves. The two teams with the best record in all of baseball will face off in a win-or-go-home Game Five and our MLB picks article has the best preview and predictions for the clash.
Look below to find our free MLB Picks for tonight’s elimination NLDS Game Five between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants!
Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco Giants (Game 5) – 9.07pm EDT
The Los Angeles Dodgers were able to keep their season alive with a 7-2 win on Tuesday, but they are now fighting for it again. The San Francisco Giants return home for an elimination Game Five and will have their crowd behind them but despite the series being tied 2-2, they are losing the total runs battle 9-16. Can their bullpen pull them through again?
Katherine Mouradian
The Dodgers did exactly what they needed to do, and won the fourth game, to take this series right down to the wire. Did anyone really expect anything else from the two best teams in the league? So, the question on everyone’s lips is who will win this game? Can the Giants win at home, or will the Dodgers get the win on the road?
The bats were swinging for the Dodgers last time out, and they are hoping for more of the same again tonight. The starting pitcher for the Dodgers will be Urias, and he is having an incredible season, with a 2.96 ERA, along with a 1.018 WHIP, 28 walks and 195 strikeouts, which is over 185.2 innings throughout the year. He got the win over the Giants in the second game of this series, where he threw for five innings and had numbers of one run on three hits with just one walk and five strikeouts, so he will be going into this clash with lots of confidence.
The Giants just couldn’t compete with the Dodgers in the fourth game, but they are hoping that a home crowd will do the trick to get them across the line in the final game. For this game we will be seeing Webb on the mound for the Giants. He finished the regular season with an ERA of 3.03, along with a WHIP of 1.106, 36 walks and 158 strikes across 148.1 innings. Webb also knows what it takes to win against the Dodgers, he helped the Giants get the win in the first game of this series. He threw 7.2 innings which were scoreless, allowed just five hits, and had no walks along with 10 strikeouts. He also has a 6-0 record when pitching at home this season.
Just like throughout the entire season, there is pretty much nothing to separate these two teams. A lot will rest on the pitchers to get their teams across the line, and with Webb’s record at home, and with the Giants playing in front of a home crowd, I’m going to have to give the slight edge to the Giants.
Katherine’s MLB Pick: San Francisco Giants (-116)
Game 4 energy. pic.twitter.com/YwT2v09HeP
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) October 13, 2021
Mike Su
In what is turning out to be one of the best series in recent memory, the Dodgers have equalized the series to keep their playoff hopes alive. Now both teams enter Game 5 to decide who advances to the next round of the playoffs against the Braves and likely to the World Series. The Dodgers have been touted as the best team in the league due to their huge payroll and abundance of talent but failed to catch up to the Giants late in the season to win the division.
During the regular season the teams played each other 19 times with the Giants having the slight advantage with 10 wins. The teams have been formidable foes and now enter a deciding match that could go either way. In this matchup the Dodgers are starting the winningest pitcher in the league Julio Urias. Urias won a league leading 20 games in the regular season and had just 3 losses on his record.
Urias had an excellent 2.96 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 195 strikeouts. Although not as good, his numbers against the Giants have been decent with 12 runs allowed and 33 strikeouts in 29 innings. The biggest issue is that all in the 5 games Urias pitched against the Giants, he lost 3 of them. However, in the playoffs Urias has played a lot better, leading the team to a 9-2 victory behind a 1.8 ERA performance. Urias should be able to subdue the Giants but he will need his hitters to put runs on the board.
The Giants will be fielding Logan Webb who had a perfect game in Game 1 of this playoff series and will be looking for a repeat. Webb led the team to a 4-0 victory behind a strong pitching performance where he allowed no runs and had 10 strikeouts leading to a 0.00 ERA. If Webb can repeat this performance this may end up being an extremely low scoring game. This matchup looks like it will be a defensive slog fest with the winning runs being scored late in the game. I can’t call the winner here due to how close it has been thus I am going with the Unders.
Mike’s MLB Pick: Under 7 (-114)
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*Odds and spreads correct at time of publication, courtesy of FanDuel
