Ala Hann Sport picks

The day after Manny Ramirez departed from Los Angeles, the Dodgers went on to beat Roy Halladay and the Phillies in an important NL wild card game. The betting experts are not expecting the Dodgers to compete for the NL West pennant as Los Angeles trails San Diego by nine games and San Diego shows no signs of slowing down. But the Dodgers trail the Phillies by only five games for the NL wild card berth, and the Phillies are looking very slow lately.

In Los Angeles the talk is starting to turn towards NCAA football betting and in Philadelphia the sports fans are interested to see what happens with the NFL betting on the Eagles this season. But it is the failings of the Phillies that seem to be the talk of the town at this point. The Phillies are trailing the Atlanta Braves by three games in the NL East, but they lead the NL wild card by a game and a half over San Francisco, three games over St. Louis and five games over the Dodgers. The Phillies have lost six of their last 10, including a critical loss in the first game of this series to the Dodgers.

An example of the struggles of the Phillies can be found in the newest Phillie pitcher Roy Oswalt. Oswalt is 1-3 in his last four decisions and his record this season is 9-13. However, Oswalt’s ERA is 3.12 and he pitched seven scoreless innings in his most recent start against the Padres which also included seven strikeouts.

The MLB betting world is very familiar with Los Angeles starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He has an 11-8 record with a 3.01 ERA this season. The last time he pitched against the Phillies was six and two-thirds innings of two run baseball in the Phillies ball park. Kershaw has been pitching very well lately, and he has been getting significant run support as well.

If the Phillies thought that the departure of Manny Ramirez would cause chaos in the Dodgers batting order then they were sadly mistaken. Ramirez was a distraction that is no longer there, so now the rest of the Dodgers are supremely focused on trying to catch the Phillies for that NL wild card spot.

With a sweep in this series the Dodgers can leapfrog over the St. Louis Cardinals and start knocking on the Giants door in the NL wild card standings. After all the Dodgers have done this season to fall out of playoff contention, they find themselves right in the middle of it with less than 40 games to go in the regular season.

The Phillies just cannot score runs. They were shutout in the first game of this series and the Phillies have more pitchers with losing records but with ERAs lower than 3.50 than almost any team in the majors. If Ryan Howard and the rest of the Phillies cannot start putting the stick on the ball then it could be lights out for the Phillies by the middle of September.

Pick: Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1