Diamondbacks vs. Dodgers MLB Picks and Predictions

Locked in a tight race for the NL West crown, the Los Angeles Dodgers are big favorites on Tuesday’s baseball betting card in a matchup with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Tuesday, September 14, 2021 - 10:10 PM EDT at Dodger Stadium

Los Angeles already clinched the season series with Arizona prior to the 5-1 winning MLB score on Monday. Justin Turner had a big game at the plate for the Dodgers, but the best news for LA was seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch for the first time in about 10 weeks. The win gave the Dodgers a 7-1 home record against the Diamondbacks this season, with totals now 3-5 O/U. Online betting sites had the Dodgers huge favorites on Monday, and they’re big chalk again on Tuesday around -240 on the moneyline. Luke Weaver (3-4, 4.24) and Tony Gonsolin (2-1, 2.79) make up the initial mound duel, and most shops are taxing the ‘under’ on a 9-run total.

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Snakes Bringing Up Rear of National League

Arizona is inching closer and closer to an inevitable 100-loss season, the Diamondbacks sitting on 97 defeats entering Tuesday’s contest. It has been especially brutal for the club on the road with a 19-54 record, and as the season draws to a merciful close, the only real question is whether or not the Diamondbacks will catch the Baltimore Orioles for the No. 1 pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.

When you stop to consider the Diamondbacks are going to wind up paying Weaver about $150K per start while LA will pay Trevor Bauer around $2.35 million per start in 2021, Arizona is getting the better bargain. Tuesday will be Weaver’s third start since returning from a 3½-month stint on the injured list for a bum shoulder, and he split the first two with a winning effort against the Padres as a big underdog on the MLB betting odds before a loss to Texas as the favorite.

Weaver has yet to face the Dodgers in 2021, and Arizona dropped all three of his starts against them a year ago. Those three assignments last season represent the total of his outings against Los Angeles since he came to Arizona in 2019, and Weaver’s ERA against the Dodgers for his career is 7.00 once you add in some earlier relief appearances. Trea Turner is 6-for-8 lifetime against Weaver, all half-dozen hits being singles.

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Dodgers Top Majors in Run Differential

Los Angeles would be on top of any other division, and by double-digits in some cases, but not the NL West where the Dodgers trail the San Francisco Giants by 2½-games with a little less than three weeks remaining. The Dodgers have a 3-city tour through Cincinnati, Colorado and Phoenix after this series, then close out the regular season with a homestand against the Padres and Brewers.

Shoulder trouble delayed Tony Gonsolin’s start to 2021, and the recurring injury shelved him for all of August before he returned last Thursday against the Cardinals. His pitch count was choked down, but Gonsolin did a decent job over three innings while allowing just one run. Los Angeles closed as -155 chalk at Intertops, and ultimately fell 2-1 to St. Louis at the latest rendition of Busch Stadium.

Gonsolin’s last appearance before his second stint on IL came against Arizona near the end of July, and Tuesday will mark the fourth time among his 12 outings to face the Diamondbacks. All three of his previous matchups with Arizona came in a starting role, the Dodgers winning two of them and Gonsolin pitching to a 3.86 ERA across 9+ innings. He owns a career 2.25 ERA at Dodger Stadium over the course of 12 starts and one relief appearance (60 IP).

Cool & Calm the Tuesday Forecast in LA

Crew chief Mark Wegner is slated to call balls and strikes in Tuesday’s contest. Now in his 24th year working games at the big league level, Wegner has a 9-4 O/U record on the year, his two contests with 9-run totals splitting the marks. Home favorites are a level 5-5 in Wegner’s plate assignments this season, and totals have split 4-4 O/U his last eight times to have dish duty at Dodger Stadium.

Clear skies are the call for this evening in Los Angeles, with much of the game played in the upper-60s and very little to no breeze. Those cooler temps could help the pitchers, leaving me with a free MLB pick on the ‘under.’

MLB Pick: (visit our Sportsbook Review)

*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.