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The Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers will begin the NLCS on Monday at 8:08 p.m. ET, with a trip to the World Series on the line. Neither team has home-field advantage in this best-of-seven series, as it will be played at the brand new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The Dodgers (43-17) had the best record in baseball in the regular season and have cruised through the playoffs so far, sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers and San Diego Padres. The Braves (35-25) won the NL East and are also unbeaten in the postseason, sweeping the Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins to get to this point.
Here are some of our best bets at DraftKings Sportsbook heading into the NLCS.
Series line: Dodgers -215
The best-of-seven format greatly benefits the Dodgers, who are arguably the deepest team in baseball. And there are no off days in the NLCS, meaning starting rotation depth will be much more critical than it was in the Wild Card and NLDS rounds when teams could burn through their bullpens without reservation.
The Braves have two high-end starters in Max Fried and Ian Anderson, but not much else after that. The Dodgers can match those two with Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw, then have a trio of young studs in Dustin May, Julio Urias and Tony Gonsolin to turn to. The Braves can rake, but the Dodgers were the only team in the National League to plate more runs this season. And when it comes to defense, the Dodgers ranked second in MLB in defensive runs saved. The Braves were 21st.
Total games played: 5 games (+300)
What you’re looking for here is the Dodgers to split (or win) the first two games against Fried and Anderson, and then finish the series off by taking advantage of the favorable pitching matchups the rest of the way.
Exact outcome of the series: Braves win 4-3 (+600)
The Braves are actually given worse odds to beat the Dodgers in 7 than the Astros are with the Rays (+550), and Atlanta is much more equipped to pull off the upset.
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