Giants-Dodgers prediction: Picks, odds on Friday, September 22

The San Francisco Giants (76-77) and Los Angeles Dodgers (94-58) will continue their four-game weekend series tonight. First pitch for this classic NL West rivalry is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lefty Sean Manaea (6-6, 4.82 ERA) will start for the Giants while fellow lefty Caleb Ferguson (7-3, 2.56) will open in what should be a bullpen night for the Dodgers.

Los Angeles was able to grab the series opener last night in a 7-2 victory. A J.D. Martinez sacrifice fly broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the sixth and a pair of wild pitches the following inning allowed the Dodgers to pad their lead. They’d tack on two more insurance runs in the eighth to secure the comfortable win.

L.A.’s chances of hunting Atlanta down for home-field advantage is dwindling as the Braves’ magic number is now at six. Meanwhile, San Francisco remains three games back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League and are fortunate that Chicago, Miami, and Cincinnati have all lost their most recent games.

The Dodgers enter this game as a -166 favorite on the moneyline over at DraftKings Sportsbook, making San Francisco the +140 underdog. The run total is set at 9.

Giants-Dodgers picks: Friday, September 22

Injury report

Giants

Day-To-Day: SP Carson Whisenhunt (elbow)
Out: SS Brandon Crawford (hamstring), SP Alex Cobb (hip), SP Antony DeSclafani (elbow), RP Keaton Winn (COVID-19)

Dodgers

Out: SP Walker Buehler (elbow), SP Julio Urias (administrative leave), RP Gus Varland (knee), RP Daniel Hudson (knee), SS Gavin Lux (knee), SP Michael Grove (lat), OF Jake Marisnick (hamstring), RP Yency Almonte (knee), RP Wander Suero (back)

Starting pitchers

Sean Manaea vs. Caleb Ferguson

Manaea has been solid for the Giants this month and picked up the win against the Rockies this past Sunday. He went 5.1 innings in the outing and yielded three earned runs in a game where his offense backed him up with 11 runs for the afternoon. He’ll have to overcome a tough personal challenge tonight as this Dodger lineup is collectively batting .341 off him.

Ferguson will serve as the opener for the Dodgers and should go just one inning before handing the baton to another arm out of the bullpen. He’ll hope his brief appearance will go better than his last start against the Tigers on Tuesday, where he gave up a solo home run to Spencer Torkelson. No. 2 hitters are tripping him up with a .444 batting average, so he’ll have to be on alert this evening.

Over/Under pick

The total for this one will most likely hinge on how quickly both lineups can generate runs in the early innings. The Dodgers will have reliable arms coming in after Ferguson while Manaea should be able to give the Giants a solid three to five innings of work before turning it over to his ‘pen. Yesterday I predicted the over and today, I’ll lean towards the under.

Pick: Under 9

Moneyline pick

San Francisco has dropped six of its last seven games and its postseason hopes are teetering on life support. The team needs to at least split this series to stay afloat in the Wild Card race and I think they’ll take advantage of the bullpen night by the Dodgers to edge their way to a must-needed win.