The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres will play the first regular season MLB game ever in Mexico City on Saturday, and oddsmakers are expecting a ton of offense.
The teams will square off at Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium, which will provide perhaps the most hitter-friendly environment any big leaguer has ever swung a bat in.
The stadium, home to the Mexican League’s Red Devils, sits at about 7,350 feet elevation – more than 2,000 feet higher than Coors Field, the Rockies’ bandbox of a ballpark in Denver.
Not only is the air much thinner at Mexico City’s stadium compared to Denver’s, but its fences are much shorter as well.
Coors Field is 347 feet and 350 feet down the left-field and right-field lines, respectively, and 415 to center while Alfredo Harp Helu is 325 down the lines and 400 to center.
The weather forecast calls for around 70 degrees and sunny, which hitters will also welcome.
In other words, a ton of runs will be scored.
Across the board, oddsmakers have pegged the total at 15.5 runs, which is among the highest MLB over/unders in recent history and the highest total ever tracked by Action Network.
The last time an over/under was set at 15 runs or more, coincidentally, another game played at a neutral site.
That game came one day after the Red Sox and Yankees combined to score 30 runs in London – the first-ever game played in Europe — in late June 2019.
After the offensive explosion in the first game, the total opened at 16.5 runs, per the Las Vegas Review Journal, before closing at 15 runs at some sportsbooks, the highest total since 2005.
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With no precedent for big league ball in Mexico City, oddsmakers are essentially throwing darts at the wall, so bet at your own peril.
But in any case, strap in for what’s sure to be an entertaining night of baseball.