The Los Angeles Dodgers will travel to Chicago, Illinois, to face the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 2:20 PM ET on Friday afternoon and will air on ESPN+ and SportsNet LA.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are projected to be the best team in baseball this season, and they have started the season off strong after splitting the series against the San Diego Padres in South Korea 1-1. The Dodgers would win the series 3-1 against the St. Louis Cardinals in their first series at home to start the 2024 MLB season and then followed that up with a 3-0 series sweep at home against their division rival, the San Francisco Giants, which ended with a 5-4 win in game 3 of the series on Wednesday. 

Shohei Ohtani hit his first home run as a Dodger in Game 3 of the series against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday. Nobody in baseball is hitting the ball better than Mookie Betts, who enters this game leading the league in batting average at .485, home runs with 5, RBIs with 11, hits with 16, on-base percentage at .595, slugging percentage at 1.091, and runs scored with 14. 

The Dodgers won four of the seven meetings last season and 11 of the previous 14 games in the series. The Los Angeles Dodgers will look to continue their hot start to the 2024 MLB season when they travel to face the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of the series. 

Even though the Chicago Cubs did not make the playoffs last season, they performed better than expected and made a strong push for the playoffs this season. However, this season, the Cubs have started the season off 4-2 after losing their first two games and their first series of the 2024 season on the road against the Texas Rangers, in which they won Game 3 by a score of 9-5.  

The Cubs went on to sweep the Colorado Rockies 3-0 at home while outscoring Colorado by an average of 8.67 to 3.33 runs per game during the series. After scoring only five runs in their first two games of the season, the Cubs have scored at least five runs per game in their previous four matchups. Seiya Suzuki has played a pivotal role in the success the Cubs have had producing runs as he leads the team in RBIs with eight and is tied for the team lead in home runs with two while scoring six runs. 

The Chicago Cubs will host the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday afternoon, looking to extend their winning streak to five games.

JustBet has the Los Angeles Dodgers listed as -165 moneyline favorites on the road against the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon. Los Angeles has dominated the series against the Cubs, winning four of the seven meetings last season and 11 of the 14 meetings in the series over the previous two seasons. Enter this game on a two-game winning streak in the series in which they have won by an average of 4.5 runs per game during the winning streak.

Los Angeles is a lock for the playoffs, while Chicago has a legitimate chance of winning the NL Central this season, so this should be an exciting series. However, the Dodgers won four of the seven meetings last season and 11 of the previous 14 games in the series. As a result, I am taking the moneyline for the Los Angeles Dodgers when they travel to face the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon.