Yankees vs. Dodgers Opening World Series Odds (Los Angeles Enters as Slight Favorite)

The stage is set for the 2024 World Series!

The Los Angeles Dodgers earned their bid to the Fall Classic on Sunday night, taking down the New York Mets in Game 6 of the NLCS. Now, Los Angeles will host the New York Yankees — who beat the Cleveland Guardians in just five games in the ALCS — in Game 1 starting on Friday.

The layoff between the Championship Series and the World Series should allow both teams to set their rotation however they’d like for the Fall Classic, truly making this a series to watch.

Both the Yankees and Dodgers had high preseason expectations, and to their credit, both teams finished with the top spot in their respective league and rolled through the playoffs to make the World Series.

New York has dropped just two games on its road to the Fall Classic, and it’s looking to win its first title since 2009. Meanwhile, the Dodgers last won the World Series in the 2020 season, which was shortended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oddsmakers have released odds for this series, and the Dodgers are set as the favorite at DraftKings Sportsbook. Los Angeles (-125) has an implied probability of 55.56 percent to take this series while the Yankees (+105) have an implied probability of 48.78 percent.

Based on these odds, we should be in line for a great series. In fact, the exact outcome odds in the World Series show that this matchup is expected to go at least six games.

This series features plenty of star power on both sides, including the likely AL MVP (Aaron Judge) and NL MVP (Shohei Ohtani). New York also has stars like Gerrit Cole, Juan Soto, Giancarlo Stanton and others while the Dodgers feature Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and more.

Cole will likely get the ball in Game 1 for New York against Los Angeles’ Jack Flaherty, but both sides still have some time to set their roster for the World Series.

In the opening odds for Game 1, Los Angeles is a -130 favorite and the total is set at eight runs.

So far this postseason, the Yankees rank third amongst playoff teams in OPS — the Dodgers are first — and fourth in team ERA — the Dodgers are ninth.

One key for New York has been the dominance of its bullpen (2.56 postseason ERA) as it’s been lights out for nearly every game but Game 3 of the ALCS. The Dodgers (3.16 bullpen ERA) may end up using their pen more than New York, as they had two full bullpen games during the NLCS.

After going the distance with the San Diego Padres in the NLDS, Los Angeles avoided a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday. It has scored at least five runs in seven of its 11 appearances in the playoffs. In addition to that, the Dodgers have shut out their opponent on four different occassions this postseason.

These teams are pretty evenly matched, so we should be in for quite the series once things kick off on Friday night.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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