Has there been a better starting pitcher in the major leagues this season than Joe Musgrove? Well, yes, but the truth is, there haven’t been many.

Musgrove has simply been a dominant hurler; that is something some had forecast for him when he first broke into the big leagues with Houston back in 2016.

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And he’s with a team on the rise with the San Diego Padres, who made personnel moves in the off-season designed to put them in hot pursuit of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, with whom they will clash on Sunday night, at 7:08 PM ET, at Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine.

Is this Musgrove’s night? We will weigh in on that, and come with an MLB winner.

Here is the setup for you:

San Diego Padres vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

When: 7:08 PM ET (ESPN)

MLB Betting Odds

Money Line: Dodgers -130 / Padres +110

Total: Over 7.5 Runs +100 / Under 7.5 Runs -120

Run Line: Padres +1.5 Runs (-200) / Dodgers -1.5 Runs (+170)

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In Musgrove’s four starts, he has allowed eleven hits in 26 innings, with a phenomenal 37-3 ratio of strikeouts to walks. His ERA is 1.04 with a WHIP of 0.538.

He’s thrown 70% strikes, with 17% of his pitches being swinging strikes.

Of course, he has also thrown a no-hitter, on April 9 against the Texas Rangers, and the only thing that prevented him from pitching a perfect game was that he hit a batter.

He has also pitched in some hard luck; he’s lost his last two starts, with the Padres scoring just a single run in both of those games.

He has fanned opponents on 39.8% of their plate appearances, surrendering a batting average of .124 and an OPS of .408.

In other words, he is one of the front-runners for the Cy Young Award, although he’s got company, from the likes of Jacob deGrom and Corbin Burnes.

And his own teammate Yu Darvish as well. The Padres, not known as a team with a lot of capital to work with, but they made some bold moves to upgrade the rotation. On the same day they traded with the Cubs for Darvish, they acquired former Cy Young winner Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays.

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And on January 19, they got Musgrove from Pittsburgh as part of a three-way trade.

Snell, of course, got unhappy with the Rays, in part because they removed him from Game 6 of the World Series while he was sailing along and shutting the Dodgers down. Darvish has come over and has a 0.853 WHIP.

Musgrove is admittedly a pleasant surprise. But maybe he shouldn’t be, because he has talent and he was trending in the right direction while he was still at Pittsburgh.

Dustin May could became a Cy Young candidate eventually – perhaps even this year – but he needs to improve on his last outing, when he gave up four runs in five innings to the San Francisco Giants.

And who is stopping Fernando Tatis Jr.? He has terrorized LA’s Cy Young winners, hitting two homers over both Clayton Kershaw AND Trevor Bauer in this series.

This underdog is worth checking out.

The Play: SAN DIEGO +110