This article is part of our MLB Picks series.
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Overall 59-44 +6.62
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals 8:15 pm et
Kyle Hendricks vs. Adam Wainwright
Hendricks has won 10 in a row with 2 no-decisions in his last 12 starts and has gone at least 6 innings in all of them. He has faced the Cardinals three times this year going 3-0 with a 2.37 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and just 7 strikeouts in 19 innings. The Cardinals are a tough team to strike out and Hendricks is not a strikeout pitcher. But we can see here that he has success against this team and is very consistent in the number of innings per start. I really wanted to take Hendricks over 17.5 outs but the juice was -161 and just too high, so the alternative is the under on earned runs. He has been one of the most profitable pitchers 1st 5 innings this season (13-5-1 +$556).
BET – Hendricks under 3.5 earned runs (-133) for 1 RW buck
BET – Cubs -0.5 F5 (+145) for 1 RW buck
San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers 10:10 pm et
Normally I avoid road underdogs when going over on a strikeout prop, but the Giants have been great on the road (29-22) and 17-11 as road dogs outright which is impressive. If you dig into Webb's game logs you will see 2 bad starts in 2 of the toughest ballparks to pitch in – at Coors and at Citizens Bank. In the 9 starts excluding those he has pitched 47.1 innings with 50 strikeouts, 13 walks, 2.28 ERA and 1.16 WHIP. In the 6 starts from May 11th on he has 35 strikeouts, 7 walks, 0.87 ERA, and 0.84 WHIP.
On May 29th he went 5 innings against the Dodgers on the road and struck out 7 batters. That is enough data for me to feel confident in taking the over on the strikeout prop but also the Giants on the first five innings.
BET – Webb over 4.5 strikeouts (+100) for 1 RW buck
BET – Giants +0.5 F5 (-110) to win for 1 RW buck