Baseball’s Best Series Openers and Closers
When handicapping baseball games, we often dig deep into splits such as home/road records and how teams perform vs right- and left-handed pitching, but something you should add to your list is how teams perform in series openers and in the last game of a series. For whatever reason — they’re just damn good, they’re motivated to start or finish strong, or they mentally check out when a series is coming to an end — a handful of teams stand out as excellent or awful bets at different spots in a series.
It’s no shock that the Astros are great in both categories — 18-10 in series openers and 22-6 in series close-out games for the season. When looking at some smaller sample sizes, however, there’s some teams in both spots that are jumping off the page.
- Dodgers: 8-1 in last nine
- Red Sox: 8-2 in last 10
- Padres: 7-2 in last nine
- Rays: 5-0 in last five
- Phillies: 5-14 in last 19
- Orioles: 1-9 in last 10
- Blue Jays: 2-9 in last 11
- Blue Jays: 14-5 in last 19
- Brewers: 7-1 in last eight
- Astros: 6-0 in last six
- Indians: 7-2 in last nine
- Dodgers: 6-1 in last seven
- Angels: 7-3 in last 10
- Diamondbacks: 7-3 in last 10
- Yankees: 0-8 in last eight
- Nationals: 3-7 in last 10
- Red Sox: 3-7 in last 10
- Rockies: 1-5 in last six
So, when you’re crunching those numbers before you place your bet for a game in this situation, remember to see how the teams have been performing in that spot. Here’s the best and worst teams when opening and closing a series for the entire season:
Team records when opening a series
- Rockies 20-8 (71.4%)
- Dodgers 18-10 (64.3%)
- Diamondbacks 18-10 (64.3%)
- Astros 18-10 (64.3%)
- Nationals 18-11 (62.1%)
- Pirates 10-19 (34.5%)
- Phillies 10-18 (35.7%)
- White Sox 10-18 (35.7%)
- Angels 11-17 (39.3%)
- Athletics 11-17 (39.3%)
- Marlins 11-17 (39.3%)
Team records in last game of a series
- Astros 22-6 (78.6%)
- Dodgers 20-8 (71.4%)
- Indians 18-10 (64.3%)
- Brewers 18-10 (64.3%)
- Mariners 16-12 (57.1%)
- Diamondbacks 16-12 (57.1%)
- Athletics 9-19 (32.1%)
- Braves 9-19 (32.1%)
- Giants 10-18 (35.7%)
- Mets 11-17 (39.3%)
- Padres 11-17 (39.3%)
