Caleb Wilfinger
The 2025 MLB postseason continues on Monday with both Game 2s in the National League Divisional Series. It’s Dodgers vs Phillies and Cubs vs Brewers in what should be a scintillating day of baseball. The Pickswise team is on an 51-34 run in this MLB best bets series. Let’s build on that momentum and hopefully deliver some more winners today! Time to dive into our top picks for the NLDS today, while you can also find out our MLB picks for every game on Monday, October 6, and throughout the entire postseason.
MLB best bet for Dodgers vs Phillies NLDS Game 2: Blake Snell (LAD) over 16.5 outs (-105)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -135.
Game 1 of this series between the Phillies and Dodgers was a back-and-forth affair that went down to the wire. That was to be expected, and I suspect that we’ll see another close game at Citizens Bank Park on Monday. And while I don’t have a strong opinion on the side in this game, I’m going to go back to the well with a prop bet that has treated me very well in Dodger playoff games thus far.
The Dodgers’ bullpen has been a major issue over the last few months of the season, and it’s impacted how manager Dave Roberts has elected to use his starting pitchers in the postseason thus far. In fact, in the Wild Card Series opener against the Reds, Blake Snell delivered a rock-solid performance over 7.0 innings of work; Los Angeles’ relievers still allowed 3 runs and struggled to find the strikeout in the eighth and ninth innings. That appeared to be the last straw of sorts for Roberts, as both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani tossed 6+ innings and gave way to starting pitchers coming out of the bullpen. With that in mind, it’s hard to see Roberts going away from that strategy — especially after Snell looked great his last time out.
While most managers are quicker to go to their bullpens in October, Snell should have a longer leash in this one — especially since the Dodgers took the opening game of this Division Series. It certainly helps matters that the former Cy Young winner has been brilliant this season, particularly over the last month. In fact, Snell has reached 6.0 innings pitched in each of his last 4 outings and in 6 of his last 8 starts dating back to August 16. Even on the road, Snell should feel comfortable for a game in which he shouldn’t be pitching with much pressure. Given that we don’t even need Snell to reach a full 6.0 innings of work to clear this number, I’ll gladly back the left-hander to clear his outs prop on Monday.
Don’t miss Javan Shouey’s YRFI/NRFI best bets for BOTH of today’s NLDS matchups!
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