Yankees vs. Dodgers Game 2 prediction: World Series odds, picks, best bets Saturday
After nearly a week of anticipation, baseball fans were treated to an instant World Series classic that did far more than live up to the hype.Freddie Freeman added to his Hall of Fame resume on Friday night by becoming the first player to hit a walk-off grand slam in the World Series, handing the Dodgers a dramatic 6-3 victory in extra innings and a 1-0 series lead. In baseball’s wild-card era, teams that have won Game 1 of the World Series have gone on to win it all 79% of the time. Most of those series, however, weren’t as evenly priced before Game 1 as this one, and at the Dodgers’ current price (-240, DraftKings) to win the series, oddsmakers are implying a 70.6% chance that they win their eighth Fall Classic.The Yankees are larger underdogs in Game 2 than in Game 1, as Carlos Rodon is set to battle Dodgers rookie right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.Rodon has pitched to a 4.40 ERA in 14 ⅓ innings this postseason, but that number undersells his three appearances.
He struck out seven batters versus the Royals but fell apart in the fourth inning.Since then, he’s bounced back with two quality starts in the ALCS, versus a Guardians side that hit lefties well this season.In his first three playoff starts, the lefty Rodon owns a stellar xFIP of 1.99 and a K-BB percentage of 35.6. Rodon’s 122 Stuff+ rating this season is the best mark of any starter from either side in the series.Opponents held a miss rate of 33% in two-strike counts versus Rodon in 2024, which is the second-best mark among qualified starters in MLB.Yamamoto earned plenty of praise for his performance in a do-or-die Game 5 versus the Padres in the NLDS and followed it up with a reasonable showing in his lone start in the NLCS.
Still, he has pitched to a 5.11 ERA this postseason and features a far less convincing underlying profile than his counterpart.In 12 ⅓ innings in the playoffs, Yamamoto owns a 4.07 xFIP and has been hard hit 39% of the time.He also holds a K-BB percentage of 13.5...