This series does not have a clear and heavy favorite
Not all Sportsbooks have opened their odds for the National League Championships Series (NLCS) that will be contested between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies but those that have all recognize that this is going to be a very close series. In fact this series is rare as opening pricing, across different Sportsbooks, does not recognize a consensus favorite.
With
Ladbrokes for example the Phillies have come in as the slight underdog set at +110 (11/10) while the Dodgers are the favorite at -129 (10/13).
With
Stan James on the other hand the Dodgers are the underdog at even odds while the Phillies come in as the favorite at -125 (4/5).
Unfortunately the regular season does not provide a great deal of insight because these teams played all of their head to head games on or before June 7th. Not only that but the season series was close as the Dodgers won 4 of 7 games.
This series looks like a coin toss in a lot of ways. The contestants have very similar overall records and their home and away splits are very competitive as well. The Phillies' road record is comparable to the Dodgers' home record while the Dodgers' road record is identical to the Phillies' home record. That means home field advantage is not going to be a huge factor in this series.
Many might be tempted to call the Dodgers in this series because they swept the Cardinals in the first round, they, the Dodgers, have a better regular season record, and they are the home team in the series. However the thing about the Dodgers is that they almost coughed up a huge lead in the NL West. The Dodgers were the best team in baseball early on in the year and they once enjoyed a winning percentage, by my memory, of better than .650 well into the season.
Finishing the season at .586 doesn't look all that impressive when you were once well above that. The best way to understand the Dodgers is consider them to be a team that simply limped into the post-season and then they just ran into a very cold St. Louis Cardinals club, a team that lost 8 of their last 10 down the stretch.
Our recommendation is to pick the Phillies with
Ladbrokes at +110 as that is where the best value is on this series.
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