The Padres have had a taste of success against the Dodgers winning 8 out of 13 games this season. Padres are the top hitting team in baseball but they're also great at pitching. Starting pitching is what I'm focusing on today. It's Dylan Cease against Yoshinobu Yamamoto. I like Cease here if I just look at his last three starts I'm very impressed when the first two he didn't allow run in shutout wins. I don't think Yamamoto has that in him even though the Dodgers won his last three starts he was chased against the Rockies in the third and gave up four runs. Padres win.

The Padres don't fear going to Chavez Ravine, I prefer their starter here, even though Dylan Cease wasn't stellar in his outings vs LAD, and they played better ball in the second half. Yoshinobu Yamamoto barely pitched this season, this is a tough spot to put him in. Friars have better pen. The layoff for the Dodgers will probably work against them. This is a toss up game to me, so I like the value here and I believe the Friars are the deeper team.

Interesting decision by the Dodgers to go with rookie Yoshinobu Yamamoto for Game 1 and bump veteran Jack Flaherty, who has playoff experience, back to Game 2. Freddie Freeman is likely not 100 percent off that ankle injury and obviously can't DH. San Diego's Dylan Cease had a 2.97 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP in September. I simply think the Padres are the best team in baseball right now -- although Joe Musgrove's injury definitely hurts. The Friars won the season series, 8-5, the first time they’ve taken a regular-season series against the Dodgers since 2010.