All 30 teams are in action on Friday’s MLB schedule, and the last two teams to hoist the World Series trophy go head-to-head in Arlington as the Dodgers roll into Texas to take on the Rangers. It should be a great series all week, and it starts with an amazing pitching matchup between Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jacob deGrom with first pitch on Friday at 8:05 p.m. ET. With so many ways to just into the action, here are a few of my best bets for Dodgers vs. Rangers on 4/18/25.
Every game of the season, DraftKings Sportsbook offers multiple ways to get in on the action with player props, Moneylines and picks against the spread from each MLB contest. You can also pick series winners, award winners and team futures as well, so be sure to check out all the options available on the MLB page of DK Sportsbook.
Here is a look at my best bets for Dodgers vs. Rangers on 4/18/25.
Best Bets for Dodgers vs. Rangers on 4/18/25 from DraftKings Sportsbook
Dodgers Team Total over 4.5 runs scored (+110)
The Dodgers are coming off a three-game sweep of the Rockies to start the week and went over this run line in each of the three wins in that series. They have scored 93 runs in 20 games this season for an average of 4.6 runs per contest.
In the series against the Rockies, both Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani got going in big ways with big games. Ohtani homered in two of those three games and has six on the season, while Freeman had two hits in each of the three contests and homered on Wednesday in the Dodgers’ most recent game.
They’ll have a tough matchup against Jacob deGrom, but deGrom hasn’t been untouchable this season. He gave up four runs in 5 2/3 innings to the Rays in his last home start and three runs to Seattle in four road innings in his most recent start. The former Cy Young has shown glimpses of his former glory, but he hasn’t consistently been at his best. The Rangers are also being very careful with his workload, so he may not pitch deep into the game, giving the Dodgers a chance to add on runs after he leaves.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto 7+ strikeouts (+135)
Yamamoto has been excellent so far in his second season with the Dodgers. He has 28 strikeouts in 22 innings and has gone six innings in each of his last two starts, stretching out to 103 pitches in his last outing against the Cubs.He had nine strikeouts in six innings against Chicago.
Against the Tigers earlier this season, he also went over this mark with 10 strikeouts in just five innings in his first stateside start after opening the year in Japan. He produced this many strikeouts in two of his three outings on this side of the Pacific and has averaged 1.4 strikeouts per inning over those three games.
The Rangers strike out slightly less than average so far this season, but Yamamoto’s strikeout rate and excellent stuff gives him a high enough strikeout ceiling that I’ll take him to get to this plus-money level. If you really want to be aggressive and high-risk, his alternate strikeouts of 8+ are on the board at +260. I also mentioned him as a nice pick in the race to three strikeouts against deGrom in my starting pitcher props for the day.
Los Angeles Dodgers -1.5 (+120)
There’s no need to get wild with the final one of my Dodgers/Rangers bets for this Friday. If the Dodgers are going to score and Yamamoto is going to be good, it makes sense that they would cover this run line. Getting it at plus-money makes it especially juicy.
The Rangers are an impressive 9-1 at home to start the season, but as you can see on our betting splits page, the Dodgers -1.5 is getting 85% of the handle against the spread, indicating the larger bets being placed are coming in on the Dodgers -1.5.
