Mets Take on Dodgers with Matt Harvey on the Mound
The New York Mets take on the Los Angeles Dodgers tonight in New York, and their recently discovered ace is taking the mound. The Mets are -161 moneyline favorites, and that’s no surprise given the absolute out-of-left-field dominance of starting pitcher Matt Harvey.
“There’s going to be a lot of years you’re going to talk about this guy,” manager Terry Collins said. “He pitched great, but that’s the mark of a true ace. Games like that can spread to great seasons.”
“He functions on such a high octane already,” catcher John Buck said. “To be honest, I really don’t think he cares who he’s facing.”
Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz saw Harvey pitch at the University of North Carolina in college and was impressed with his stuff then. However, Harvey has made a quantum leap forward this season from the promising but raw pitcher he was in school. “He was just all raw talent there,” Federowicz said of Harvey. “He’s developed a lot. He was just overpowering guys his freshman year, using his fastball a lot. He was really just fastball, curveball — and he’d throw some changeups in there. Now he has a slider. He’s really developed a lot.”
The historical early dominance of Harvey is hard to overstate; he is the only pitcher in the modern era of baseball who has won his first four starts while giving up ten runs or fewer. Harvey is holding opposing batters to just .108, and he has struck out 32 batters over 29 innings. However, both of these teams have struggled this season, the Dodgers much more than their lofty payroll suggested; the Dodgers are 9-10 while the Mets, who traded away reigning NL Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey in the offseason, are 9-9. However, the Mets are significantly better than their record suggests; they are fourth overall in the league in runs scored, 13th in batting average, ninth in on base percentage and eighth in slugging percentage. If they can keep up those numbers, their record should dramatically increase as the season stretches on.
Here are some of the betting trends for both the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets heading into tonight’s game, courtesy of OddsShark.com:
Los Angeles Dodgers Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 5-5
Before playing NY Mets are 4-6
After playing NY Mets are 6-4
After a win are 5-5
New York Mets Trends:
When playing on Wednesday are 5-5
Before playing LA Dodgers are 8-2
After playing LA Dodgers are 5-5
After a loss are 5-5
A few Dodgers at Mets trends to consider:
LA Dodgers are 5-0 SU in their last 5 games when playing NY Mets
The total has gone OVER in 5 of LA Dodgers’ last 5 games when playing NY Mets
LA Dodgers are 5-0 SU in their last 5 games when playing on the road against NY Mets
The total has gone OVER in 6 of LA Dodgers’ last 7 games
The total has gone OVER in 5 of NY Mets’ last 5 games when playing LA Dodgers
The total has gone OVER in 6 of NY Mets’ last 7 games
The total has gone OVER in 4 of NY Mets’ last 5 games when playing at home against LA Dodgers
The total has gone OVER in 8 of NY Mets’ last 11 games at home
