Major League Baseball

MLB odds: How to Bet Dodgers vs. Giants, point spread, more

Updated Oct. 14, 2021 5:19 p.m. ET

After watching the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers battle it out for the National League West Division title all season, it's no surprise the NL Division Series is going to the final game.

How narrow is the gap between the teams?

San Francisco won 107 games during the regular season to claim the NL West. Los Angeles won 106. Then the Dodgers ousted St. Louis in the wild-card round, and now LA and SF have split the first four games of the NLDS, giving each team 109 wins this season.

The Dodgers said Thursday afternoon that right-hander Corey Knebel (4-0, 2.45 ERA with three saves in 27 games, including four starts) will start Game 5. Knebel missed more than three months during the middle of the season with a strained back, then gave up just four earned runs and striking out 21 over his final 19 appearances.

He is expected to serve as the opener ahead of left-hander Julio Urias, who was the presumptive starting pitcher.

Knebel, an All-Star in 2017 while with the Brewers, served as an opener in four games, pitching one or two innings. He allowed just one run as as opener for a 1.59 ERA in those four games.

Knebel was the opener against the Giants on Sept. 3, throwing two scoreless innings.

The Giants will start right-hander Logan Webb, who held the Dodgers to five hits in 7 ⅔ innings in Game 1.

Webb threw a season-high 38 changeups in Game 1, which generated a season-high 12 swings and misses. Four of his 10 strikeouts came on the changeup

But the difference, according to FOX Sports' Sam Panayotovich, could be the bullpen.

"I love the Giants bullpen. I don't like, I love," Panayotovich said. "And when you look at the starters, Webb and Urias, I think this is a game where both guys probably go 5 innings, maybe 5 1/3, 5 2/3. And then it goes to the pen. And who's been better regular season, postseason than the San Francisco Giants? I mean, they just throw guys at you that get guys out."

The Giants held a 10-9 edge in regular-season matchups this season even though the Dodgers won the first four games between the teams this season.

Including the four NLDS games, the Dodgers have outscored the Giants 96-87 even though San Francisco has won 12 of the 23 games.

The Giants have flourished in winner-take-all games in recent years.

The good news: Since San Francisco lost Game 7 of the 2002 World Series to the Angels, the Giants have won their past five postseason elimination games.

The bad news: Madison Bumgarner, who pitched in the last three of those elimination games, now wears a Diamondbacks jersey.

The teams relied on pitching to get this far. The Dodgers led MLB in team ERA (3.01), with the Giants right behind at 3.24 ERA. They tied for the MLB lead in saves with 56.

A big difference between the teams in the pitching department: Los Angeles threw 17 shutouts, compared to two for the Giants. Baltimore (five) and Arizona (four), which tied for the fewest wins in MLB season with 52, each threw at least twice as many shutouts as the Giants.

The Dodgers allowed the fewest hits (1,107) and were second in strikeouts (1,599). The Giants issued the fewest walks (416) and allowed the fewest home runs (151).

"We know how people bet the Dodgers. They bet them until, you know, the cows come home," Panayotovich said. "The fact that this is (-110) tells me everything I need to know here. The Dodgers' probably true line is like -130, -135 or so but there's a lot of respect in Las Vegas. We know that the books don't need the Giants to win and go far, but the fact that they're pricing this as a coin flip against a very popular LA Dodgers club, I love the Giants. I was all on the Giants before the series and I'm not going to change my mind now."

Click here for the latest MLB postseason odds on FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app for everything you need in the sports betting world.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS @ SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (9:07 p.m. ET Thursday, TBS)

Point spread: Dodgers -1 (favored to win by more than one run; otherwise Giants cover)
Moneyline: Giants -115 favorite to win (bet $10 to win $18.70 total); Dodgers -105 underdog to win (bet $10 to win $19.52 total)
Total scoring over/under: 7 runs scored by both teams combined

Pick via FOX Sports' Sam Panayotovich: "I've seen (Kris Bryant) do this in big games in Chicago for years. When the stakes are high, this guy thumps the ball. I don't know that he's going to get one over the wall but given the math, you're gonna give me 550 on Bryant to homer and the Giants to win, I'll throw a little bit of coin down. Why not?"

PICK: Prop bet of Kris Bryant hitting a home run and Giants winning (+550)

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