Sunday Night Baseball: Cubs vs. Dodgers
How do the overwhelming World Series favorites respond to the worst home loss in franchise history? That is the question for the Los Angeles Dodgers after a 16-0 beatdown at the hands of the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night. Of course, it is worth noting that five runs were allowed by position player Miguel Rojas, who was more effective replicating teammates’ pitching windups than getting outs. This series has featured two shutouts. Will Cubs vs. Dodgers tonight have another one?
The Dodgers won 3-0 on Friday and the Cubs had their big offensive explosion last night, as LA still sits at +250 per DraftKings to win the World Series, while Chicago is still 25/1, despite a terrific start to the year.
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How to Watch Cubs vs. Dodgers
Where: ESPN
When: Sunday April 13, 7:10 p.m. ET
Cubs vs. Dodgers MLB Odds
Chicago Cubs +215 // Los Angeles Dodgers -265
Total: 8.5 (-122/+102)
Cubs vs. Dodgers Game Preview
For the Cubs to pull off the series victory, they’ll have to pull off one of the bigger upsets of the season. Right-hander Colin Rea “likely” gets the call for the NL Central leaders per manager Craig Counsell, while Tyler Glasnow is on the bump for the third-place Dodgers, who entered the day 1.5 games behind the 12-3 Padres. The NL West has four teams over .500 as of Sunday morning. No other division in baseball has more than two. In fact, every team in baseball entered play on April 13 with at least five losses, other than the Padres and Giants.
Rea was signed from the rival Brewers this offseason to provide the Cubs with some pitching depth. And now they need it because Justin Steele has joined Javier Assad on the IL and Steele’s injury could keep him out for a while. A long while, potentially, as he’s getting a second opinion on his left elbow. So Rea now becomes an important piece. He’s worked 5.1 innings in relief with no runs allowed, surrendering just five hits with a couple of strikeouts and zero walks.
He’s maxed out at 40 pitches and just went from March 31 to April 7 without getting any game action. He threw 23 pitches in his April 7 appearance against the Rangers, so it’s fair to wonder how far he can go here. With yesterday’s laugher, the Cubs have all bullpen hands on deck as there are only three relievers who have appeared twice in games dating back to Wednesday and none of them have worked a back-to-back or anything.
That means that the Dodgers may be seeing a lot of different arms, as Rea’s goal may simply be to get through the lineup once or so. Brad Keller is a guy with multi-inning experience and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as the first arm out of the bullpen.
On the whole, the Dodgers are off to a pretty good start, but Glasnow is not. He’s worked seven innings in total with five runs allowed on four hits. He’s struck out 10 of the 33 batters that he has faced, but he’s also walked eight of them. His fastball velocity is also a full mph down from last season and he has an extremely low Chase Rate with a poor first-pitch strike percentage.
Glasnow’s bad start came in cooler weather in Philadelphia, as he only lasted two innings with five runs allowed and five walks. He was good against the Braves in his 2025 debut. So, we’ll see which version of him we get on a very comfortable night in Chavez Ravine.
The Cubs are second in MLB in walks with an 11.7% BB%. Only the Phillies are higher at 11.9% and that’s who Glasnow just walked five against, so that could be an issue. The Cubs are also second in wRC+ to the Yankees and Chicago has run the bases very well, leading MLB in FanGraphs’ all-encompassing BsR metric. The Dodgers are 10th in wRC+, but they are only batting .226 as a team.
Glasnow is likely to be better tonight, but this is another tough matchup and his third stiff test of the season. I’m not a Rea fan at all, but the Cubs will take a Johnny Wholestaff approach and I feel like they have the chance to keep this one close, if not win it. They’re a pretty good offense to be plus money on the +1.5 Run Line.
Pick: Cubs +1.5 (+105)
Cubs vs. Dodgers Player Props
This one is juicy, but Colin Rea Under 5.5 Hits Allowed (-160) is pretty interesting, given that I think he maxes out at three innings or so.
One player I do like against Rea and the Cubs low-strikeout bullpen is Max Muncy. Muncy was second in fastball batting value on the Dodgers last season and Rea’s primary pitch to lefties is the fastball, as he doesn’t really use his sweeper in R vs. L matchups and that is undoubtedly his best pitch. He’s only thrown 22 pitches to LHB so far and 14 have been fastballs. His other weapon against them appears to be a splitter.
Muncy is off to a brutal start with a .184/.231/.265 slash, but his contact quality is still there with a 51.9% Hard Hit% and three Barrels out of 27 batted ball events. His BA of .184 comes with a xBA of .230 and his SLG of .265 comes with a xSLG of .395 based on that contact authority. Rea isn’t a big strikeout guy and Muncy has struck out nearly 43% of the time thus far.
I like Muncy Over 0.5 Total Bases at -150 and think a splash on a HR is a good bet. He’s +420 at Fanduel to homer and +370 at DraftKings, so shop around.
