Dodgers vs Rangers Betting: A Look at Tonight’s MLB Odds

The Texas Rangers of course won the 2023 World Series for the first championship in franchise history and on Tuesday they open a series at the current betting favorites to win the 2024 Fall Classic in the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are solid favorites on the MLB odds for the opener.

Texas at LA Dodgers: 2024 MLB Expert Analysis

Bet Texas Rangers Odds

This starts a six-game trip for the Rangers, who snapped a two-game skid Sunday and avoided a home sweep at the hands of the Giants with a 7-2 victory. Texas stole four bases in the first two innings; the team’s three stolen bases in the first inning alone were the most in a single frame since June 7, 2022 in the top of the sixth at Cleveland. Adolis Garcia stole home as part of a double-steal in the first inning, the third time he’s stolen home in his career.

The four overall steals were the most in a game for Texas since July 1, 2023 against the Astros (also four) and first time with four or more individual players recording at least one steal since May 25, 2022 at Anaheim. The Rangers entered Sunday having recorded multiple steals in an inning just eight times in the Bruce Bochy era (all in 2023).

Bochy said that stealing more bases and manufacturing runs is something they’ve talked about more and more as a staff as the offensive struggles continued.

Marcus Semien went 1-for-3 with a home run, two RBI, a stolen base and an additional run scored. Semien was integral as the Rangers built a 5-0 lead after two innings. He was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the first, stole second base, then came home on Wyatt Langford‘s single. An inning later, Semien deposited a first-pitch slider into the stands in left for a two-run home run. He’s reached base safely in nine straight games, going 11-for-31 (.355) with seven walks, two homers, three RBI and eight runs scored.

The rookie Langford went 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs. He recorded his fourth multi-hit game in the last nine while collecting his fifth and sixth RBI over that same span. Langford is starting to show some positive signs after a slow start to the season, lifting his average to .234 with Sunday’s effort and hitting .286 with a double and two triples over this most recent nine-game stretch.

All-Star shortstop and reigning World Series MVP Corey Seager missed a third straight game while dealing with a left hamstring injury. The 30-year-old is considered day-to-day, but he surely will want to play against his former Dodgers team with which Seager won his first-ever World Series MVP Award and was the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year.

Righty Dane Dunning (4-4) is the scheduled pitcher for Tuesday. Dunning didn’t factor into the decision last Tuesday, allowing three runs on four hits and one walk across five innings against the Tigers. He struck out four. Dunning couldn’t keep the ball in the yard, yielding a two-run home run to Zach McKinstry in the second inning and a solo homer to Riley Greene in the fifth inning.

The 29-year-old hasn’t completed six innings since his second start of the campaign and owns a 4.09 ERA across 50.2 innings on the year. Dunning has allowed at least one home run in seven of his 10 starts this season and 16 of his 27 runs allowed this year (59.3%) have come on home runs.

The struggling Dunning could be headed back to the bullpen soon as a series of injured starters return to the Rangers rotation. Jon Gray, Max Scherzer and offseason signee Tyler Mahle are in different stages of rehab but they’re on their way. Gray might be back Wednesday.

Bochy has 2124 wins as a manager, 10th-most in MLB history, and 1 shy of matching Joe McCarthy (2125) for 9th place. Texas is 9-11-1 in series play this season.

Bet Los Angeles Dodgers Odds

The Dodgers played a potential World Series preview over the weekend at the New York Yankees but couldn’t finish the sweep after a 6-4 loss in the finale on Sunday night. Teoscar Hernandez went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and a double in the loss. Hernandez followed up his two-homer effort Saturday with another in the sixth Sunday off Luis Gil to put the Dodgers up 3-2. He’s now produced four multi-hit games in a row and has seven extra-base hits over that span. For the year, the 31-year-old is now slashing .266/.333/.516 with 16 homers and 48 RBIs.

Gavin Lux went 3-for-4 with a steal and a run scored. Lux put together his first three-hit effort of the season while also tallying his third steal of the year. Despite the three base hits, Lux was unable to drive anyone home and remains with just one RBI since May 19. He also hasn’t homered since May 7 and has just four extra-base hits since May 22. The 26-year-old is still looking to find some more consistency at the dish, and is now slashing .216/.268/.292 with 13 RBIs.

Third baseman Max Muncy remains on the injured list but has begun taking dry swings. That’s a step forward for Muncy, as he had previously been unable to swing a bat at all after continuing to experience soreness in his oblique. He hasn’t played in a game since May 15 and will likely need to go on a rehab assignment before rejoining the big-league club.

Reliever Alex Vesia didn’t pitch Sunday because he did Saturday and he has been lights out. Vesia has been dominant over the last two months, allowing one earned run in his last 21 games (23.1 IP). During that stretch, he has given up just seven hits while striking out 34 batters. His 0.39 ERA ranks second in the majors since April 12, trailing only Emmanuel Clase (0.37). Overall, the southpaw owns a 1.20 ERA with a 0.83 WHIP on the season. The LA bullpen owns an MLB-best 2.05 ERA in the past 43 games.

It’s lefty James Paxton on the hill Tuesday. Paxton (5-1) took the loss last Wednesday, allowing seven runs (six earned) on six hits and two walks across 1.2 innings against Pittsburgh. He struck out two. Paxton retired the side in the first inning but endured a terrible second frame. He gave up a walk, three singles and a double to the first five batters he faced as part of a seven-run inning by the Pirates that Paxton didn’t finish.

Paxton blamed “bad execution – just didn’t get the pitches where I wanted to get them to.” But two season-long trends were evident once again – a lack of command (the two walks) and a lack of swing-and-miss stuff (he got just four on his 45 pitches).

Paxton has been shaky over his last four starts, surrendering 15 runs over 15.1 innings while allowing multiple homers in two of those outings and Wednesday’s start ballooned Paxton’s ERA from 3.29 to 4.19. He found a lot of success with the Dodgers early on with a 2.58 ERA through his first seven starts with the team, and his signing as a depth piece looked even better in hindsight after the Dodgers lost Bobby Miller for a significant amount of time due to injury. However, Paxton could soon be the odd man out now that Walker Buehler has returned from injury, Gavin Stone has become a legitimate starter, and Miller is near the end of his rehab.

Bet Rangers at Dodgers MLB Odds

When: Tuesday, 10:10 PM ET
Where: Dodger Stadium
Pitchers (away/home): Dane Dunning/James Paxton
TV: MLB Extra Innings
Stream/gameday audio: ESPN+; https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/

Can we get a Player of the Week, the Teoscar way?

Congratulations Teoscar on being named the National League Player of the Week! pic.twitter.com/9o0kz0LPkp

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) June 10, 2024

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