Yahoo奇摩新聞 The Daily Sweat: Hated Astros face Dodger Stadium fans for first time since cheating scandal
In the fallout of the Houston Astros sign stealing/garbage can banging scandal, perhaps the most memorable moment came against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly aggressively taunted Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, mimicked that he was crying and the benches cleared. Plenty of teams have voiced displeasure over the Astros and leading the way was the Dodgers, who lost the 2017 World Series to Houston in seven games.
The Astros have been to Dodger Stadium since the scandal but never with fans in the stands. That changes on Tuesday. The Astros are a +140 underdog at BetMGM as they face the Dodgers in what should be a rare regular-season baseball home-field advantage.
“Our fans have waited a long time to have these guys at our place,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “And we’ll leave it at that.”
The two-game set will feel like a playoff matchup and maybe more (hopefully Dodgers fans boo and antagonize without any issues), and it will be interesting to see how that affects the Astros. Earlier this season, the Astros responded to some trolling by getting even. New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge trolled Jose Altuve by tugging at his jersey, like Altuve did on a 2019 walk-off homer against Aroldis Chapman (allegedly to tell teammates not to rip off his jersey and expose a device, which Altuve denied). After Judge's trolling, Altuve hit a huge walk-off homer and his teammates purposefully tore off his jersey at home plate. Maybe they've gotten used to being the villain.
There's no great reason the Astros are +140 underdogs, unless you think they'll melt under the pressure. And they could; it will be a hostile crowd. The Dodgers have the great Walker Buehler on the mound, but the Astros counter with Lance McCullers Jr., a top starter himself. The Dodgers and Astros each have 64 wins and are among the best teams in baseball. It's a fairly even matchup but the odds are heavily favoring the Dodgers.
We'll take the Astros catching a nice number, and hope they're comfortable by now being the bad guys in this drama.
Here's the first look at the betting slate for Tuesday:
The Olympics continue on
You'll have to wait a couple more days to bet on some race walking, but there's plenty of other Olympic sports going on.
The United States women's basketball team is up late Tuesday night (or early Wednesday morning, depending on your time zone), after the men advanced early Tuesday morning. Team USA plays Australia, and they're a 15.5-point favorite. It tips off at 12:40 a.m. Wednesday.
Who cashed tickets on Monday?
The United States men's basketball team beat Spain 95-81, shaking off a slow start to not just win but cover the 11.5-point spread. They're on to the semifinals.
The Philadelphia Phillies had a notable win, rallying for five runs in the ninth inning to beat the Washington Nationals 7-5. The Phillies are just .500 but not out of the NL East. Maybe there's still a run left in them.
Also, the Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-2 as +155 underdogs, which matters to you if you paid attention to the best bet segment of Monday's Daily Sweat.
What's the rest of the MLB schedule?
It's the full Tuesday slate, with Astros-Dodgers as the obvious highlight. The Phillies are -165 favorites over the Nationals, due to Zack Wheeler and his 2.45 ERA being on the mound. They'll need to win games like that if they're going to make a move in the NL East. The Red Sox are -150 favorites after being swept by the Rays last weekend, and it might be worth looking at a feisty Detroit Tigers team as a home underdog in that one.
What's the best bet?
The Colorado Rockies have been very good at home, and quietly much better overall the past few weeks. They face a Chicago Cubs team that unloaded everything not nailed down at the trade deadline. The Rockies being -140 favorites shouldn't scare you off, there's still value on Colorado over the Cubs for Tuesday night's game.
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