Angels Can Beat Cubs Through Five

Cubs vs. Angels, 9:38 ET

Yesterday, I shared two plays. One was a first five-inning play on an under because I was focused in on the starting pitching so much that I felt like it made sense to play it that way. The first five innings cashed, as did the full game. Then the other game, I should've played just the first five innings and instead played the full game. The reason I lost? The bullpen allowed four earned runs. It can be very hard to handicap that which is why I focus on the first five innings so often. Today, I have a play in the Cubs vs. Angels second game of a three-game set.

The Cubs are not quite terrible, but not quite great either. There are some awesome prospects in college baseball, but they will most likely not get a chance at any of them because they are going to be too good for that. They are in no man's land right now with a decently successful team, but not good enough to make the playoffs. There are already talks about what will happen with them at the deadline - will they once again be sellers? Marcus Stroman is one guy that has a ton of value but we will see if he stays or goes. One guy that has very little value is Jameson Taillon. He has had two solid starts for the Cubs this season and seven starts where he allowed three earned runs or more. He hasn't looked good at all. In fact, his most recent start, against the Padres, was the first game that the Cubs won that he started. They are now 1-8 in Taillon starts. Angels hitters aren't great against him batting just .207 over 58 at-bats.

After years of being somewhat of a laughing stock in baseball, or at the very least one of those teams that you just don't understand, the Angels are into June with a winning record. It isn't a good record, and it is unlikely unless they get hot that they can make the playoffs, but it is still positive to see some winning ways in Los Angeles. With Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, they need to win, and they need to win in a hurry. Both deserve a chance to make some postseason noise. Today they rely on Jaime Barria to take the ball for them and keep trying to distance themselves from .500 in a positive way. He has been used very interestingly this season. Kind of as an opener as this will be his third start, but also kind of an innings eater. He's only allowed six earned runs this season and has tossed 34 innings. He has been quite effective.

I would be fairly surprised if the Angels aren't winning this game through five innings. Taillon has looked terrible this season. Barria has been a good pitcher for the Angels. Some games he only gets an inning or two, but there are some where he is out there for five innings. I'm going to take the Angels through five innings on the run line at -105. If you want to protect yourself, go for it with the moneyline.

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