My apologies for taking the day off yesterday – just got wrapped up in stuff and the next thing i knew the games had all started. Missed on a few bets, will try to make that up today.
Since I’m living in Philly it would be wrong of me to not point out that the Phillies now lead the National League in strikeouts after having the 7th fewest last year. Alec Bohm, Rhys Hoskins, and Bryce Harper are most to blame but that’s beside the point – when looking at the K-lines, be sure to check out whom the Phillies are facing and imagine them striking out more than average. Props to Matt Breen for pointing this out to the Inquirer readers out there.
On to the K-Watch…
Phillies @ Marlins, 6:40 pm ET
With the intro I gave today it only makes sense to look at who is facing the Phillies today – and pitching for Florida tonight is Sandy Alcantara. With the exception of a few starts, Alcantara is a K an inning type of pitcher. He actually faced the Phillies last time out and as expected, struck out more than his norm – 9 K in 6 IP. I would expect more of the same tonight. FanDuel has the line set at 6.5, so I’m taking the over and the +108.
Dodgers @ Astros, 8:10 pm ET
The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw looks to have righted his ship – his last outing he struck out 8 over 6 IP against the Dbacks while giving up 2 runs. The outing before that he struck out 11 Marlins in 6 innings, but since he gave up 5 runs that was less than successful. However, this tells me that we can count on him to start racking up the Ks at a nice clip again. FanDuel has the line set at 5.5 with +106 on the over and I’ll take it.
Cardinals @ White Sox, 8:10 pm ET
I’m drawn to this game because I saw three different lines for Lucas Giolito of the White Sox – 6.5, 7, and 7.5 – and I wanted to figure out why. I think the algos got very confused when he faced the Royals in KC a few weeks ago and only struck out 2 in 5 innings. In his other starts he’s a reliable 7-10/K a game kind of pitcher. I’m going to take advantage of the case of the confused algo and take the over 6.5 and -154 being offered by BetMGM.
Come back again — same bat-channel — Batman out!