Dodgers Are Heavy Underdogs Against Red Sox As 2018 World Series Moves To Los Angeles

When the 2018 World Series matchup was set, the Los Angeles Dodgers were made only slight underdogs against the Boston Red Sox. Now that L.A. is down 2-0 in the series, it would be considered a sizeable upset for them to come back and win the Fall Classic.

Boston is a -600 favorite to be crowned this year’s champions. Los Angeles has +450 betting odds to come back and steal the series from the Red Sox.

The Dodgers are favored at home in Game 3, per OddsShark.

The Dodgers have a difficult task ahead of them, needing to win four out of five games against a team that won 108 games in the regular season. The Red Sox had a 1-4 stretch just once over the course of 162 games, losing four out five games to the Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins in mid-June.

Los Angeles has the advantage now that the series has moved back to L.A., but playing on the road hasn’t slowed down Boston this postseason. The Red Sox are 5-0 on the road, failing to lose against the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros.

The Red Sox won 16 more regular-season games than the Dodgers, and they’ve simply looked like the much better team. Boston’s bullpen has gotten the job done, allowing just one run in eight innings. Their offense has been baseball’s best all year, and the lineup is hitting .297 through two games against Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and a great bullpen.

J.D. Martinez is probably the early World Series MVP with four RBI and a .429/.500/.571 slash line in two games. Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi are both hitting .500.

The Dodgers’ offense has underperformed for the majority of the playoffs, hitting .212 and slugging .345 this postseason. The last 16 batters Los Angeles sent to the plate in their 4-2 Game 2 loss were retired.

That means they’ll likely have to get big performances from their starting pitchers if they hope to make this series competitive. Walker Buehler will make his first-ever World Series start when he takes the ball in Game 3 after allowing one run in 4.2 innings in Game 7 of the NLCS. Kershaw had another bad playoff outing in the series opener, and the Dodgers hope he’ll take the mound in Game 5 before going back to Fenway Park.

A championship for Boston would give them four titles in the last 14 years. Los Angeles hasn’t won a World Series in 30 years.