Brewers @ Dodgers August 26 Free Pick

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The Dodgers beat the Brewers 3–1 on Friday night for their 91st win of the season. Kenta Maeda gave up nothing more than a solo home run and two walks in six innings for his 12th win of the season and the Dodgers scored one run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, including solo home runs from Logan Forsythe and Yasiel Puig.

LA is still slightly off the pace of the 2001 Mariners’ 116 wins. The Dodgers will have to go 25-10 over their last 35 games to match that record, which feels all to easy. That doesn’t seem to be their concern, though. With their three best pitchers and best offensive player on the mend, the Dodgers are primarily concerned with getting healthy down the stretch. But they’re having a lot of fun and can’t seem to help but win most every game along the way.

Ross Stripling faces Zach Davies at Chavez Ravine tonight.

Free Pick

I don’t see anybody who will — or even can —  beat the Dodgers this season. The Nationals at full strength would have been a challenge but they are nowhere near that status now. The Cubs don’t have the pitching and those are the two best possibilities.

The American League is in rough shape. Cleveland’s pitching still makes it the pennant front-runner because of the emergence of Trevor Bauer to go with Kluber and Carrasco but both Shaw and Allen have shown cracks in the bullpen this season and Andrew Miller‘s health concerns have repeated themselves enough now that they must be considered real.

Boston has an outside chance of reaching the World Series but it doesn’t have the horses to compete with LA if it does and Houston just won’t matchup with the Dodgers’ starting pitching, even if its lineup does get completely healthy.

The Dodgers will walk to their first World Series since 1988, the first in my lifetime. The only real question I have is if they will maintain the dominance that I believe has them on track to be named the Best Team of the Year when the ESPYs roll around this winter. Golden State will be the popular vote but if the Dodgers win 110 games and don’t see a Game 7 in the playoffs, I would give it to them.

They have been indestructible. No matter how many guys go down, the next guy plays, performs well and helps the team win. The fun factor matters a whole lot, in baseball most especially and the Dodgers are having fun.

This will be Stripling’s first start of the season but not his first ever. Again, it’s just another chance for a guy to step into a new role and help the team win in a different way than he has before. I think he’ll pitch just fine and see no reason why not to expect the Dodgers to win at home. They’ve won 81 times in their last 105 games; who is taking the Brewers?

Free Pick: Dodgers -1 (-125)


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