What a divisional round of playoffs to kick off the Major League Baseball playoffs for the 2017 season. The Yankees completed one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, taking down the Indians and we hit on our tips in the other three series, one of them coming at odds of $4.50 for a profitable round. We’ll take a look at the two League Championship Series starting this Saturday and give our betting tips for both below.
Houston Astros vs New York Yankees
The Astros and Yankees will do battle to represent the American League in the 2017 World Series after New York were victorious in a remarkable five game series over the Indians. The bookies had the Indians as $1.57 favourites for the series and for good reason after the back half of their regular season was as dominant as we’ve seen in a long time.
The Yankees batting line-up was inspirational in the upset victory with the likes of Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorious and Luis Severino all finding form in the series win. The Yankees won three games in a row to take out the series and scored 13 runs in those three games. They’ll need to be just as good with the bat in the upcoming series as they come up against the number one offence in all of baseball.
Led by AL MVP favourite Jose Altuve, the Houston Rockets led all of baseball in both hits and runs throughout the regular season and with a line-up that includes Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, George Springer and Altuve it’s no wonder.
The battle of the pitching staffs is probably in slight favour of the Astros. Justin Verlander leads the team and was absolutely lights out throughout the regular season and opening round against the Red Sox. The Yankees first round series also went a lot longer than the Astros, so they might not have a fully fit bullpen in the first one or two games.
Tough series to call here, the heart says to go with the Yankees as their story and their form at the moment is pretty inspirational but given the extra few days rest to recover the pitching staff we think Houston could jump out to a quick 2-0 lead. It’d be a massive ask for the Yankees to come from behind twice. We like Verlander and Dallas Keuchel to both get wins in the opening two games and the Astros to go on and win the series in 5 or 6.
Houston Astros -1.5 Games
$2.25
Los Angeles Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs
Unbelievably, for the first time in their 140-year history, the Chicago Cubs won a playoff series in three consecutive seasons for the first time this year. Their opening round matchup against the Nationals was one for the ages as the series went to a thrilling five games where the Cubs were victorious in Washington.
Cubs closer Wade Davis was massive in the game five win, coming in in the 7th inning and recording a massive 7 out save to hand the Cubs victory. He’ll have to be massive again in this series as defence should be the main theme of the series. Both teams have outstanding pitching staffs who should dominate the series.
Clayton Kershaw will lead the Dodgers, backed up by the likes of Alex Wood, Yu Darvish ad Rich Hill while the Cubs will return with their all-star pitching lineup that was the main factor in them securing the World Series last season. While they have been a little underdone throughout the regular season, the Cubs rotation is built for the playoffs and with Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, John Lackey and Kyle Hendricks at the helm, the Cubs are a massive chance.
While they took their foot off the pedal later in the season, the Dodgers have no doubt been the best team in baseball in the 2017 season. Their starting rotation is lights out and Clayton Kershaw might be up there with the best pitchers we’ve ever seen. It’s really hard for us to pick against them when the big lefty will be on the mound for at least two starts and potentially a bullpen appearance.
Los Angeles Dodgers to win
$4.25
