The MLB season is now roughly 40 games old, so by this point, only four teams have faced a different opponent in each of their series. That list will drop to two tonight, when the Baltimore Orioles begin their second series of the season against the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers start their second set against the San Francisco Giants.

The historic Dodgers-Giants rivalry will write a new chapter into the history books at 10:10 p.m. ET, when the series opener’s first pitch will be made in Los Angeles.

The Dodgers will turn to Roki Sasaki, and Trevor McDonald will take the mound for San Francisco.

Let’s break down this matchup with some odds and lines at DraftKings Sportsbook.

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers prediction, preview

As they have for much of the past decade-plus, the Giants are looking up at Los Angeles in the standings. San Francisco has had a slow start to the season, sitting just 16-24, and it has been in poor recent form, dropping nine of its last 12 games. The offense has borne the most responsibility for the Giants’ poor start; despite finishing just 22nd in OPS in 2025, they’ve slipped even further to 29th so far in 2026 despite free agency signing Luis Arráez posting his highest OPS+ since 2023. Shipping off catcher Patrick Bailey, a negative offensive asset, could help, but Bailey’s prolific framing was a major asset for a bullpen that, despite a drop-off from 2025, still ranks a solid 11th in ERA this season. San Francisco’s pitching might also look worse if Arráez, a negative defender for most of his career, hadn’t suddenly turned into a Gold Glove contender in his eighth season, so it remains to be seen whether that is sustainable. The Giants have already gotten lucky as is, as their run differential is equivalent to that of a 14-26 team, but they did win the first series, 2-1.

Series loss aside, the Dodgers have kept on keeping on. Despite a stretch of seven losses in their last 11 games, Los Angeles is still just two games worse through 40 games as it was in 2025, and even after losing a pair of fairly lopsided games against the league-best Atlanta Braves over the weekend, its run differential is equivalent to that of a 27-13 team. As usual, despite dealing with some injuries (Blake Snell has only made one start and Tyler Glasnow left his most recent start after one inning because of a back strain), Los Angeles has had an elite rotation, ranking fourth in starter ERA. The Dodgers also rank second in OPS despite a recent cold stretch, and their offense is almost certain to get better once Shohei Ohtani breaks out of his nine-game, four-for-33 slump and Mookie Betts, who was just activated from the Injured List after a five-week absence, finds his groove at the plate. Even Los Angeles’ bullpen has been better: despite offseason signing Edwin Díaz performing poorly so far, five of the seven Dodgers relievers with at least 10 appearances have a sub-3 ERA.

San Francisco is turning to a talented but untested pitcher for tonight’s game. McDonald has made three starts and two relief appearances in his career, but they’ve been stellar, as he’s never given up more than three hits or two runs in any one outing. In his season debut last Monday, he was nearly un-hittable, stymying the San Diego Padres for seven innings and giving up only one run on two hits while striking out eight and walking none. Still, his repertoire isn’t untouchable; in 44 games (36 starts) in Triple-A over the past three seasons, he sports a 5.18 ERA and just a 2.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His stuff has improved, as he combines 80th-percentile extension with an above-average fastball spin rate, but he got slightly lucky across the board in 2025. As a sinker-reliant pitcher who was able to avoid giving up many homers in the minors, he should be able to neutralize Los Angeles’ tendency to get the ball up, but his struggles with walks (15 in 15 innings in Triple-A this season) could prove a problem against a team that had finished in the top two in walks in each of the prior five seasons before ever-so-slightly dropping off this season. He did hold the Dodgers to one hit in six innings at home last September, and Los Angeles hasn’t been quite as clinical there so far this season, but for the most part, he’s been worse on the road throughout his professional career.

“Talented but untested” could also be used to describe Sasaki. The second-year pro has still shown few signs of improvement after a shaky rookie season, pitching to a 5.97 ERA and giving up at least three earned runs in three of his last four starts, but his backers point to his stellar performance out of the bullpen in the 2025 postseason and his nearly untouchable numbers in Japan (a 2.10 ERA across 394.2 innings). Despite his tantalizing promise, Sasaki’s advanced numbers are poor; his 5.74 expected ERA ranks in just the 11th percentile, and he’s only truly excelled at generating whiffs. Still, the Giants are a pretty good matchup to mitigate his weaknesses: they rank second-to-last in barrel rate, third-to-last in hard-hit rate, and fifth-to-last in average exit velocity, and while Sasaki’s control is poor, they have walked by far the fewest times. San Francisco does have excellent bat-to-ball skills, but the Dodgers are an elite fielding team and should get better with Betts, the National League leader in defensive WAR last season, now back. Sasaki has also been somewhat better at home, while San Francisco has been relatively stable regardless of the venue.

San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers pick, best bet

Best Bet: Under 9 Runs (-110)

McDonald isn’t as good as his MLB numbers across his first five appearances suggest, but Los Angeles has had just a .558 OPS against ground ball pitchers so far this season. As for Sasaki, his weaknesses happen to align with the Giants’, so he shouldn’t have too much trouble getting through their lineup. Plus, the Dodgers’ much-improved bullpen is well-rested after Justin Wrobleski pitched 8.2 innings yesterday.

Strong Lean: Roki Sasaki 8 or Fewer Hits + Walks + Earned Runs (+120)

To be fair, Sasaki has allowed nine or more H/W/ER in each of his last five starts. I’m just not sure that San Francisco’s offense is good for much, especially since it chases at the fifth-highest rate, a boon for a pitcher with control issues. Sasaki has also gotten pretty unlucky that his fastball has resulted in more damage than expected, and by game score, he’s coming off of a tie for the fourth-best start of his career.