Dodgers vs. Reds prediction and odds for Thursday, June 8 (Night Three of the De La Cruz Show)

Just like that the Los Angeles Dodgers have let first place in the NL West slip away. After losing four-straight including the first two to the Cincinnati Reds, LA sits at 35-27, two games back of the Diamondbacks. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds are just five games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central at 29-33 and now have one of the most exciting players in baseball on their team.

The switching hitting phenom, Elly De La Cruz will flip around to hit from the right side against former phenom Clayton Kershaw who is making his 13th start of his 16th season. Kershaw is 7-4 with a 3.25 ERA this year and will be opposed by Graham Ashcraft who is 3-4 with a 6.64 ERA in 12 starts for the Reds. 

Let’s get into the odds for the third game of this three-game series and the third game of De La Cruz’s career as the Reds go for the sweep at home. 

Dodgers vs. Reds odds, run line and total

Dodgers vs. Reds prediction and pick

In Game 1 De La Cruz hit the hardest ball any Red has hit all year for a double, his first career hit, then in Game 2 he put on an absolute show. He hit a monster shot for his first career home run. 

I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the broadcaster's call because "that ball had a family" is all-time stuff. De La Cruz might be all time too because then he came back to the plate and showed off his speed a little bit. 

He now has three major league hits and all of them have gone for extra bases. I'm excited to see how long it’ll be before he ever settles for just a single. This will be his first time flipping around to face a lefty in the major leagues, but it shouldn’t be too big of a problem. In the minors he had an OPS of 1.002 against left-handers compared to his 1.046 against righties. 

As a team the Reds are a more potent offense facing a lefty, though there are very few like Kershaw. They have an OPS of .771 against lefties which ranks ninth and that’s despite only hitting 14 home runs, 23rd in the league. De La Cruz will give them some extra pop and the rest of the lineup, mainly Spencer Steer and Nick Senzel will continue to produce around him. Senzel has an OBP of .500 in 44 at-bats against lefties. 

The Dodgers may take Game 3 of this series, it’s hard to sweep any team, especially a perennial contender, but the Reds won’t go down without a fight, so I love the over in this one and I can’t wait to see what De La Cruz does next. 

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change