National League West foes San Diego and Los Angeles meet in the Divisional Round of the playoffs beginning Saturday at Chavez Ravine. The two teams battled for the division crown well into the month of September. The Padres actually claimed the season series for the first time since 2010 winning 8 of the 13 games. The Dodgers, though, took 2 of 3 from the Padres in the final weeks of the season to clinch the division. Los Angeles finished the season with 98 wins – tops in all of baseball. The Padres finished with 43 wins after the All-Star Break – tops in all of baseball.

The two teams meet beginning Saturday for the right to play the winner of the Mets/Phillies series in the National League Championship series. Injuries to a handful of Dodgers’ starters have forced Los Angeles to rely on Shohei Ohtani and the rest of the Dodgers’ bats to carry them…but Shohei and his mates have done just that. Ohtani himself became the 1^st player in the history of the game to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases. Balance has been the underlying key for the Padres since the All-Star Break as they rank Top 5 in both scoring and team ERA.

Lets dive into the matchup and find a sweat or two.

We’ve got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch first-pitch, projected pitching matchup, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts.

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Game details & how to watch Padres vs. Dodgers – Game 1

● Date: Saturday, October 5, 2024
● Time: 8:38 PM ET
● Site: Dodger Stadium
● City: Los Angeles, CA
● TV/Streaming: FS1

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Game odds for Padres vs. Dodgers

The latest odds as of Friday:

● Moneyline: San Diego Padres (+114), Los Angeles Dodgers (-135)
● Spread: Padres +1.5 (-192), Dodgers -1.5 (+160)
● Total: 7.5

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Probable starting pitchers for Padres vs. Dodgers

● Saturday’s pitching matchup (October 5): Dylan Cease vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto

○ Padres: Cease (14-11, 3.47 ERA) has allowed 73 earned runs and 137 hits while striking out 224 over 189.1 innings. Cease has appeared in 2 playoff games in his career pitching a total of 2.2 innings without recording a decision but amassing a 10.13 ERA. One of the 2 appearance was a start in which he allowed 3 earned runs in 1.2 innings.

○ Dodgers: Yamamoto (7-2, 3.00 ERA) has allowed 30 earned runs and 78 hits while striking out 105 over 90 innings. The rookie hurler has yet to appear in the playoffs.

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Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Padres @ Dodgers

• This is the 3^rd all-time meeting in the postseason with the Dodgers winning in 2020 and the Padres claiming victory in 2022.

• Yamamoto has struggled this season against the Padres giving up eight earned runs in six innings over two starts

• The Dodgers have won 8 of their last 10 games against NL West foes.

• The OVER is 4-1 in the Dodgers’ last 5 with a rest advantage over their opponent.

• San Diego’s bullpen has a 3.16 ERA in the second half of the season

Playoff History for San Diego and Los Angeles

• Padres: San Diego owns a record of 20-32 in their postseason history. They have reached the World Series twice and lost both in 1984 and 1998.

• Dodgers: LA owns an all-time playoff record of 11,549-10,209. They have won 7 World Series crowns – 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981, 1988, and 2020.

If you’re looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports!

Expert picks & predictions for Game 1 of the series between San Diego and Los Angeles

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Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts.

Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager.

Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Game 1 of Padres vs. Dodgers:

· Moneyline: NBC Sports is recommending a play on the Dodgers on the Moneyline

· Spread: NBC Sports is recommending a play on the Dodgers on the Run Line

· Total Runs: NBC Sports is recommending a play on the Total OVER 7.5 Runs

Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and total picks for each of the games on today’s calendar!

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