12th Oct - Mets vs Dodgers

This series is officially nasty. Chase Utley’s frankly dirty slide, rightfully punished by a two-game suspension, has added a degree of intensity to the East vs West series between the New York Mets and the LA Dodgers, which heads to Citi Field tied 1-1.

The Mets pitcher on Monday night hardly needs help getting into the headlines. Late August and early September were spent discussing Harvey’s season innings cap. He missed a mandatory workout earlier this week, which drew comment from club captain David Wright.

There’s no questioning the pitcher’s pedigree though, he went 13-8 with a 2.71 ERA during the regular season, though this is a postseason debut.

He’ll look to keep up New York’s strong pitching efforts, where they’ve effectively shut the Dodgers out besides the seventh inning of game two where they gave up four runs.

Brett Anderson will look to get on top of a Mets’ order, which has been kept equally quiet, but has received home run hits from both Danny Murphy and Yoenis Cespedes in the opening two games.

He endured an up and down first season for the Dodgers. He’s an erratic pitcher in general, but he just needs to pitch one strong game here.

Three Reasons for Betting Tips

1. Hot heads might prevail

We don’t think Utley’s slide will be forgotten, especially with Harvey on the mound. Hot heads could make this game an unusually scrappy and potentially tricky encounter.

2. Less safe pitching

We’re into the third game of the series and the pitching is slightly less safe. Harvey is capable of some inexplicably poor games, while Anderson is an up and down player. Neither team will want to let things get out of hand, but don’t expect an extreme bullpen reaction with two games left to play in the series.

3. Hitters break out

Gonzalez, Murphy, Wright and co have been relatively quiet through two games, we think they take a few more of the headlines in tonight’s game.