MLB Betting Tips: Dodgers and Yankees to lead home sweep

It’s a massive night of postseason baseball on Saturday as the MLB calendar ticks over to the Division Series in both the American League and National League (live on TNT Sports channels from 21:00 BST).

After some compelling Wild Card contests, the top seeds arrive into the mix ahead of four Game 1 match-ups, and here are my MLB Betting Tips.

Today’s MLB Odds

AL Division Series Game 1: Detroit Tigers @ Cleveland Guardians Odds (18:08 BST)

In the first of three division-rival clashes, the AL Central champion Guardians are 4/6 favourites to take an early lead in the series, with the Tigers – a real surprise package in this season’s play-offs – priced at 6/5.

NL Division Series Game 1: New York Mets @ Philadelphia Phillies Odds (21:08 BST)

The battle-hardened Phillies, who were beaten in six games by the Houston Astros in the 2022 World Series, are many people’s tip to win the whole thing this time around.

They are 8/15 to win Game 1 against their NL East rivals, for whom the last week has been a true whirlwind. The Mets are 6/4 to come out on top against Zack Wheeler and the home-town Phils.

AL Division series Game 1: Kansas City Royals @ New York Yankees Odds (23:38 BST)

Gerrit Cole goes to the mound for the Yankees with a career postseason ERA of 2.93 under his belt. That’s just one of the many reasons that Betfred have the Bronx Bombers at 1/2 for the Game 1 win.

You can get 13/8 about a Royals side almost nobody expected to feature this deep into the season.

NL Division Series Game 1: San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers Odds (01:38 BST Sunday)

The Padres made light work of a lethargic Atlanta Braves in the Wild Card round, but they know they’re in for an almighty test at Dodger Stadium against Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is handed the ball for a reset Dodgers after their five days of rest, and they are 7/10 to make that count in Game 1. You can get 23/20 on the Padres taking an early edge.

All four home teams to win @ 5/1

Postseason baseball rarely goes by the rules, but in the four seeded teams in this round we have a quartet of powerhouses.

All season we have seen and heard everything we need to know about the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ power bats, while the Phillies can slug with the best of them and the Guardians have been dominant for long stretches.

The Wild Card series addition has not often worked out to the advantage of the favourites, but I think the ability to reset rotations and get truly focused for the task ahead might just do the job for the home teams in Game 1 at the very least.

I’m going for all four to take an early series lead.

Handicap -1: Dodgers @ 7/5

Believe me, the Padres are going to have their moments in this series, and in Dylan Cease they have a gem of a starting pitcher going for them in the cauldron that is Dodger Stadium on Saturday.

But the Dodgers, with Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Ohtani headlining a sensational batting line-up, are ready to rock. If they get ahead early, there ought to be no pegging them back.

So that’s why I’m going for the generous 7/5 with its implied 41.7% probability for the Dodgers to win by at least two runs in the opener.

You can read all our latest MLB Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.