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Wkd Series Prices – Best Bets

VegasInsider Staff
VegasInsider Staff Sports Betting Expert
5 minute read
MLB Weekend Series Prices Best Bets

The LA Dodgers made it a nice quick and easy win for these plays last weekend, as they grabbed the first two games against Washington rather easily. That's two weeks of winners in a row for these weekend series plays – a rarity in 2019 – and hopefully this streak can stretch out to three straight weekends of winning series plays by the time Sunday evening arrives.

10 different matchups get going in MLB on Friday and it's a mixture of great battles (NYY vs Boston, Milwaukee vs Cubs, and LAA vs Cleveland) and some duds with teams like Houston and Minnesota laying -410 at home against Seattle and Kansas City respectively. And as tempting as it is to back the Royals specifically as a big +324 underdog in that series with the Twins because I'm a big believer in this Twins team collapsing out of 1st place in the AL Central sooner rather than later, I'm not sure I can get to 500+ words of support for that Kansas City team (or reasons to fade Minnesota over the three games).

Instead, it's back to a weekend series featuring the Washington Nationals as they go out on the road to take on Arizona this weekend.

MLB Series Odds: Washington (-140) vs Arizona (+120)

A week ago it was Washington who found themselves in the home underdog role against the Dodgers, and just seven days later they are the ones laying chalk away from home. Considering the Nationals come into this series having dropped five of their last seven overall the -140 price is a little surprising, but dropping the majority of those games to first place clubs like the Dodgers and Braves isn't a huge knock.

At the same time, you've got to wonder what the guys left on Arizona's roster are thinking as they come into the weekend just 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot and just saw their ace Zack Greinke get traded away. Teams like the Giants (1.5 games back) and the Mets (3 games back) basically stood pat and/or added pieces at the trade deadline, while Arizona effectively punted on the year.

Granted all three of those squads have a huge climb considering the number of teams they'll have to surpass to earn a playoff berth – one being this Washington Nationals team themselves – but it's an interesting dynamic for the Diamondbacks to be dealing with this weekend, and one they probably won't cope with well.

For starters, Friday's scheduled starter for Arizona is Robbie Ray, a guy who was expected to get moved to a contender for weeks by Arizona. Yet, here he stays in a Diamondbacks uniform, knowing management has little belief in their team as currently constructed in 2019. As tough as getting traded can be, guys who do find their names on the trading block have to feel some excitement about the possibility of playing meaningful/playoff baseball, and all of that and more has been stripped away from Ray. What possible motivation could he have to go out there and be at his best, knowing what could have been had he been moved to a contender, and what's likely to come with Arizona almost assuredly going into tank mode.

And yet, at this time, Ray is around -145 chalk at home in the opener against the Nationals, as on paper, he's much more backable then Washington starter Joe Ross. Just goes to show you that starting pitching matchups tend to get too heavily emphasized in the betting market – from oddmakers and handicappers perspectives – as this is about as poor of a spot it can be for Arizona.

From there, even if the Diamondbacks do pull out a victory on Friday, they've still got to deal with Strasburg and Corbin over the weekend, two games that will most likely have Washington enter as the favorite. Corbin is a former D-Back that's yet to face his former club, so you know there will be plenty of added motivation there, and Washington has won nine of Strasburg's last 10 starts overall, including his last seven in a row.

Considering the Nats enter the weekend in a three-way tie with the Cubs and Phillies for those two Wild Card spots in the NL, motivation is not going to be an issue for Washington at all, there recent run of losses probably has influenced this line a bit too much. All things considered now, Washington should probably be laying upwards of -150 or more as we've got two teams headed in opposite directions now.

So just like last weekend, it's the road chalk that I'm backing for this series, as a Washington sweep wouldn't surprise me in the least. Had the Nats recent form been better in the W/L column, chances are this price would be closer to that -150+ number I had this pegged at, but the recency bias that permeates in sports betting today is not always a bad thing if you are willing to go against it. Washington's recent stretch of 2-5 SU will have some timid to pull the trigger on the Nats this weekend, but after dropping a series to a NL West team last weekend, I've got no problem firing away on Washington this weekend.

Best Bet: Washington to win the series



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