The Los Angeles Dodgers host the Cincinnati Reds on August 26, 2025. First pitch from Dodger Stadium is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. EDT; the game will be broadcast on MLB Network.
Find my MLB betting preview and Reds vs Dodgers prediction below, as well as probable pitchers, betting trends, injury reports and more.
My Reds vs Dodgers Prediction
- Reds vs Dodgers pick: Over 9
My Reds vs Dodgers best bet is on the over total runs. Make sure to find the best odds by checking our live MLB odds page.
Reds vs Dodgers Odds
| Reds Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
+1.5 -137 | 9 -105o / -115u | +151 |
| Dodgers Odds | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spread | Total | Moneyline |
-1.5 +113 | 9 -105o / -115u | -186 |
Reds vs Dodgers Projected Starting Pitchers
| RHP Nick Martinez (CIN) | Stat | LHP Clayton Kershaw (LAD) |
|---|---|---|
| 10-9 | W-L | 8-2 |
| 2.0 | fWAR (FanGraphs) | 1.5 |
| 4.59/4.10 | ERA /xERA | 3.13/3.96 |
| 4.29/4.42 | FIP / xFIP | 3.79/4.24 |
| 1.20 | WHIP | 1.20 |
| 11.9% | K-BB% | 9.1% |
| 37.7% | GB% | 50.6% |
| 91 | Stuff+ | 94 |
| 110 | Location+ | 96 |
Kenny Ducey’s Reds vs Dodgers Preview
Cincinnati Reds Betting Preview: Martinez Faces Daunting Dodgers Lineup
The wheels are starting to fall off for Nick Martinez. After running a 3.48 ERA into the month of June, the veteran's ERA currently stands at 4.59 after a few rough months — mainly spent pitching inside his treacherous home park.
As a fly-ball pitcher with very little swing-and-miss in his arsenal, Martinez has been very susceptible to the home run this season. He's allowed 20 in all — evenly distributed between his 14 starts at home and on the road — so while he does generally pitch at a disadvantage inside the Great American Ballpark, the Fordham product only has a difference of 60 points in the home/road splits. He's actually run a higher 1.24 WHIP on the road, and his ERA still stands at a poor 4.28.
The other unfortunate news is that Martinez hasn't seemed to get any better as the season's gone on. His Expected Batting Average has sat above .270 over the past three months, and while he's at least brought his Expected Slugging down a bit in the last two months, that figure still stands firmly above the league average.
This will be a tough test for Martinez against a Dodgers team which ranks fifth in home run-to-fly ball ratio both for the season and the last two weeks, and one which owns a spicy .199 Isolated Power over that same span with strikeouts being the only real detractor.
Los Angeles Dodgers Betting Preview: Kershaw Reinventing Himself at 37
Clayton Kershaw, meanwhile, remains something of an enigma. Strikeouts have completely abandoned the 37-year-old, after we saw a heavy drop in that area during his shortened 2024 season, and while he's transformed into a heavy ground-ball pitcher the jury is still very much out on how this will go for the veteran.
Kershaw's xBA is a rough .268 for the season, even for a ground-ball pitcher's standards, and one figure that's unbecoming of this archetype is his .406 xSLG on the year. Things have still remained pretty positive for Kershaw other than a couple of bad starts in July, and this month he's managed just five earned runs over 23 2/3 innings with a 13:3 K:BB.
It's not even as if the expected stats are siding with Kershaw these past two months — a man who has allowed an xBA pushing .280 — and the whiff rate has come down even further in August to just 18.4%. He's at least managed to hold the ball in the yard and calm down with the extra-base hits, so there's some reasonable amount of hope that the lefty can continue delivering when the matchup is right.
Reds vs Dodgers Prediction, Betting Analysis
The Reds haven't had great numbers all year until their recent resurgence, so the numbers for the whole season can lie to us just a bit. What is definitely apparent, however, is that the Reds have preferred to hit righties — standing second-worst in OPS to lefties this season — and have also only done marginally better against ground-ball arms.
This isn't exactly a team which comes in all that hot here, either, running the sixth-best wRC+ in the league over the last two weeks. What we do know, however, is this is a team predicated around contact with a low-enough 21.9% strikeout rate over the span and a rather robust .249 average for their lack of production.
I'm just ever so cautiously optimistic in this Reds offense against a pitcher who has done nothing but serve up hits, and on the flip side Martinez's shortcomings as a soft-tossing fly-ball arm could do him in on the road Tuesday against a team which has gone toe-to-toe with anyone in the slugging department.
While I was in support of a low-scoring affair on Monday, I've got to go with the bats here on Tuesday. Emmet Sheehan is one of the most dominant young arms in the game, but you can't put Kershaw anywhere close to his level.
Pick: Over 9 (-105, Fanatics; play to -115)
Reds vs Dodgers Betting Trends
