Padres at Dodgers Game 5 Prediction

Baseball picks went 2-0 yesterday

San Diego's starting pitcher for this one will be 38-year old Yu Darvish. Yu has extensive postseason experience, having started 12 such games for 5 different teams in his career. He was brilliant in his most recent start, a 10-2 Padres win in Game 2 of this series where he limited the Dodgers to just 1 run and 3 hits over 7 innings. I think San Diego feels confident with him on the mound tonight and I expect him to deliver 5 or 6 strong innings. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have yet to reveal their Game 5 starter, but they have very good options available. Starters Jack Flaherty and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are both rested and available to go, or LA could lean into the strength of their bullpen, which combined to shut out the potent San Diego lineup over 9 innings in Game 4. I am thinking Yamamoto will get the call, setting up an intriguing storyline with three of Japan's best ballplayers playing major roles in this game (Darvish, Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani). You know my philosophy on elimination games, especially when some bullpen trickery is potentially at play: it usually makes for a low-scoring game. With such high stakes, both managers are not going to hesitate to pull any pitchers that get into trouble and they are going to manipulate matchups against the best hitters to challenge them in big moments. Expect this to be a tight game with runs coming at a premium. Ultimately, in spite of LA's big offensive performance in Game 4, I still trust the San Diego lineup just a bit more to break through and find a way to win.

Pick: Full Game Under 8 Total Runs (-115)

Score Prediction: Padres 5 Dodgers 2

Which team will advance to face the Mets in the NLCS?

• Padres
• Dodgers