MLB Best Bets for Monday, July 26th
Today we have a small, but nice slate of MLB games to choose from. Below are the three best bets on the board for Monday, July 26, 2021.
Reds vs. Cubs
The Cubs' offensive struggles have been well documented, and they will continue to get worse if they start shipping out their stars. One brighter spot for them has been their performance against left-handed pitching. Tonight they face a tough lefty in Wade Miley. The Cubs are hitting .255 against him, and Kris Bryant and Willson Contreras are both hitting over .400 in almost 20 at-bats each against him. They get Kyle Hendricks pitching for them tonight as well who has strung together 13 of his last 15 starts as quality starts. Joey Votto and Eugenio Suarez are both strong hitters against him and he has been susceptible to homers this season. I’m playing the under on the game as I don’t think either team gets much going and have strong back-end bullpens to complete the game. Take under 8.5 for the game.
White Sox vs. Royals
The White Sox are finally above .500 on the road, and they face a Royals team that is also barely above .500 at home. Looking at the starting pitching, one guy, Dallas Keuchel, has probably underperformed this season, and Mike Minor, for the Royals, has probably been about what we expected. I’m a little surprised at the lines on the game because I’d expect the total to go over 9.5, but that isn’t the route I’m going. I’m just taking the White Sox straight on the moneyline mostly because they still mashing lefties (as they’ve done for a few years now). The Royals do better against lefties too, so the justification for the over is there, but they don’t have as much firepower as the White Sox. Sign me up for White Sox -126.
Tigers vs. Twins
I don’t normally do this, but my numbers and analysis are telling me to go for this… A same game, three-leg parlay. I expect the Twins to win this game with relative ease. The juice is fairly high, but doable if you want to play it outright (-168). Minnesota is not a team that strikes out much, in fact, they are in the top ten in the MLB. I don’t think that Matt Manning is going to get to his listed total of 4.5. Manning hasn’t had more than four strikeouts in a game this season. On the other side, I also don’t expect Pineda to get to five strikeouts today. He has had four or less in his last six starts, and the only reason I’d provide tempered expectations is that Detroit is in the bottom five for most strikeouts per game. If you want to play just Manning under 4.5 Ks and Minnesota, the parlay is +123. I’m personally adding Pineda as I don’t think he goes very deep in the game either and that play is +312.