Minnesota Twins vs Los Angeles Dodgers Prediction: Can the Dodgers Start a New Series With a Win?
Minnesota Twins vs Los Angeles Dodgers Prediction: Can the Dodgers Start a New Series With a Win?
The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently 1-2 on the season and just lost a series to the Colorado Rockies to start things off. It wasn't was the Dodgers wanted but it's early enough in the season to overcome an opening weekend series loss to the Rockies.
Usually, the Dodgers have a lot of pitching depth. But this season, it's not really the case. The Dodgers have settled for pitchers who are past their prime and that could come back to bite the Dodgers this season. Still, the Dodgers ultimately have the best starting lineup in baseball and that should catapult them to the top regardless of the pitching staff.
Here are our picks, predictions, and odds for Tuesday's game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins.
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Twins vs. Dodgers Start Time, Where to Watch, and Odds
- Date: April 12, 2022
- Game Time: 7:40 pm ET
- Where to Watch: BSNO/SNLA
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Twins vs. Dodgers Injury Report
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None of Importance
Dodgers
None of Importance
Twins vs. Dodgers Line Movement
Minnesota Twins vs Los Angeles Dodgers Prediction
Chris Archer is still looking to make an impact at the Major League level. He signed on with the Minnesota Twins and has an opportunity to start in a depleted Minnesota rotation.
The days of prime Chris Archer are gone after he had a 5.05 xFIP in limited action last season. Against righties, Archer allowed a .363 wOBA and an ISO of .191. In the Dodgers lineup, you will see at least five righties in the lineup. Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Justin Turner, and Will Smith have all had major success against righties dating back to last year.
As a group, the Dodgers lineup had a .199 ISO and wOBA of .350 against righties last year while only hitting 37.5% ground balls and smacking 22.5% line drives against righties. Archer allowed plenty of line-drive contact against righties in his opportunities last year and was smacked around for over 50% hard contact on both sides of the plate when guys made contact.
I'll trust the best offense in baseball to put up numbers against Archer.
Meanwhile. Andrew Heaney will take the mound for the Dodgers. This is what I mean by signing pitchers that are beyond their prime. Heaney had a 4.39 xFIP last season while inducing just 33.9% ground balls and allowing 23.2% line drives.
The left-hander allowed a .197 ISO to lefties and a .252 ISO to righties. Home runs are a serious problem for Heaney and there's reason to believe that the Twins could hit a couple off him. Righties like Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, and Gary Sanchez all have a high ISO against lefties dating back to last year. The lineup for the Twins just isn't balanced enough to make me excited about putting an actual wager on them.
Therefore, I'll take the Dodgers Over 2.5 in the first five innings on the team total.
Minnesota Twins vs Los Angeles Dodgers Pick
- Dodgers Over 2.5 F5 Team Total -110 (Bet $110 to Win $100)
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Article Author
Jason grew up an avid sports fan. His passion for sports writing grew in high school and he developed a blog that was strictly for New York Sports. From his work, you will quickly realize that he loves looking at games from an analytical and numbers perspective and hopes to provide you with that same perspective in his articles.