There's no market posted yet for this one, which isn't a surprise this far out — but the shape of the season makes the shopping pretty obvious. A 63-38 club visiting a 42-59 club isn't a matchup Vegas is going to sweat over, even before a single pitcher is announced.
The Dodgers arrive a little banged up around the margins but still humming. They took the Yankees series in the Bronx behind a complete-game gem from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and an 8-2 blowout win, a reminder of just how deep this roster is even with Edwin Diaz, Will Smith and Enrique Hernandez all sidelined. The loss to the Phillies that closed out their last road trip was more sloppy than alarming — this is still a team built to grind through a schedule.
The Mets, meanwhile, are in a different world entirely. Andy Green is running the show now after the front office moved on from Carlos Mendoza mid-season, and the vibe in Queens is less about wins and losses than about auditioning who sticks around past the Aug. 3 trade deadline. Alvarez and Baty have given fans something to feel good about, but with names like Mark Vientos and Reed Garrett out of the lineup and bullpen, respectively, the depth just isn't there to hang with a club like the Dodgers over a full series.
Friday's opener at Citi Field is set for 7:10 PM ET, and it's fair to wonder if this becomes a springboard for the Mets to play spoiler against a juggernaut, or just another data point in a lost season. Either way, with the Dodgers' lineup fully operational and the Mets still figuring out who they even are under a new manager, the pressure here is squarely on New York to make this a game and not a formality.