The Dodgers' offense has awaken a bit thanks to the altitude at Coors Field and put forth its best showing in a week in a 9-5 win on Monday night. Now, Los Angeles will look to keep that up against soft-tossing lefty Austin Gomber.
Walker Buehler will get the ball for the Dodgers, and after a rough few years, it doesn't appear things are anywhere close to improving for the former top arm. He struggled prior to losing over a year due to Tommy John surgery and in his return, he's produced troubling numbers in seven big-league starts.
What are the best ways to attack both pitchers? Let's put together a same-game parlay for what could be a fun night in the NL West.
Read below for my Dodgers vs. Rockies MLB parlay for Tuesday, June 18.
Dodgers vs. Rockies MLB Parlay: Tuesday SGP Picks (June 18)
- Over 11 (-110)
- Teoscar Hernandez To Hit A Home Run (+260)
- Ezequiel Tovar 2+ Total Bases (-125)
Parlay Odds: +700 (FanDuel)
Remember to bet responsibly — this is a long shot for a reason.
Over 11 (-110)
Dodgers vs. Rockies | 8:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV
The conditions for offense should be incredible with two poor starters getting the nod against a pair of very capable offenses.
Yes, the Rockies have been down in the dumps at the plate all season, but in the past two weeks they've looked pretty competent, hitting .252 with a solid .167 Isolated Power. Strikeouts continue to kill this team, but Buehler's lost the ability to rack them up at even a league-average clip over his past two healthy seasons and has offered very little in the whiff and chase departments.
The Rockies are also hitting a pretty effective .261 versus "finesse" pitchers, as Buehler would currently be classified, with a 20th-ranked .717 OPS. For a team that has statistically been one of the worst at producing runs, these are promising figures, and now that I've sold you on Colorado's ability to punish an arm with a .273 xBA and 4.59 xERA, I'll quickly touch on the Dodgers.
The days of L.A. struggling versus lefties are gone. The Dodgers lead the league in wRC+ against southpaws, and while things haven't been easy since Max Muncy went down, a 134 wRC+ that ranks fifth over the past two weeks will do just fine here.
I did give some thought to the total in the first five innings, but with Colorado's bullpen struggling to the tune of a 7.48 ERA over the past 30 days, I opted for the full-game total.
Teoscar Hernandez to Hit a Home Run (+260)
Dodgers vs. Rockies | 8:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV
It's been six long games since Teoscar Hernandez left the yard, but Hernandez against left-handers is a love story. He owns a career .891 OPS in the split, which has risen to .931 this season. His eight long-balls versus left-handers lead the team by a wide margin, and against a guy who has given up 38 home runs since the start of last season, Hernandez seems to be a very reasonable bet to go yard.
To widen the net a bit here, only one man has hit more homers off left-handers this season than Hernandez (Ketel Marte, 11). Of the players who have had as many plate appearances as Hernandez, his OPS ranks 12th.
Ezequiel Tovar 2+ Total Bases (-125)
Dodgers vs. Rockies | 8:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV
I did consider going with Will Smith to close out our parlay, but I don't want to let Buehler off the hook that easily. The righty has taken his .258 xBA from his injury-shortened 2022 season, and taken it up to .273 with a very poor .451 xSLG. With just a 19.7% strikeout clip and whiff and chase rates that both sit in the bottom 10% of the league, he's made life very easy on free swingers.
That's what Ezequiel Tovar is.
He swings at just about everything, but has done a good enough job of not only getting the ball back into play, but using his game-breaking speed to rack up hits. He's going through a miniature 0-for-8 slump, but over his past nine games, he's still hitting .306 with seven of his 11 hits going for extra bases.
Tovar has hit .299 against righties this year — a whopping 46 points higher than the reverse splits — with a huge jump in slugging. He's also hitting .306 at home versus .268 the road, and against finesse pitchers, he's led the team by hitting .345 with a stunning .624 slugging percentage.
