Cole Will Lead Us To Cash

Yankees vs. Cardinals, 2:15 ET

If I had a different shot at life or could see into one of my alternate or parallel universes, I would spend time working in a sportsbook and seeing how the lines are generated. I would love to see the super computers that spit them out. I don’t pretend to be better than them, or smarter than them, but I do think they make mistakes or put lines out that we can take advantage of. Today is one of those games we can take advantage of between the Yankees and Cardinals.

The Yankees have actually been playing better baseball lately. I know that is easy to say when you have a perfect game thrown by one of your pitchers, but they’ve been staying pretty solid overall, too. Baseball is one of those games that has a lot of streaks. Teams seem to be contagious with both hitting and even pitching. Like players are trying to not be one of those guys that lets the team down. The Yankees get one of their ultimate competitors on the hill today and you know he doesn’t want to be the streak-stopper. Gerrit Cole takes the ball and he has been very good this year with the exception of a few late-May starts. This month he has allowed just eight earned runs in 30 innings while striking out 34 hitters. The Yankees have been very good in his games going 13-4 this season. He has held Cardinals hitters to a .194 average against him, but Nolan Arenado has killed him going 9-for-19 with three home runs.

The Cardinals have not played good baseball this season, but they can try to end the first half on a solid note if they can beat the Yankees. The biggest issue that I’m seeing in this season for them is that they are not getting any type of consistency. Simply put, they allow too many runs. Look at a sample of their last six games and they allowed nine, 10, and 14 runs to opponents. It is embarrassing seeing these performances. Jack Flaherty is one of those guys that I have supported quite a bit. I think he has a ton of great pitches in his arsenal and can be an eventual Ace. But, unfortunately, the great starts are few and far between. He has allowed six earned runs in both of his past two starts. He has an astronomical home ERA and only two solid home starts overall. Something just isn’t quite right with Flaherty.

It is kind of embarrassing that the book is hanging the Yankees at -110 against the Cardinals. They are playing better baseball than St. Louis. They have a significantly better pitcher. The only advantage I can think of is that the Cardinals are at home in this game. I’m taking the Yankees for multiple units behind Cole and taking them through five for multiple units. It is probably the biggest or second biggest play I’ll put down so far this season. The first was also a Cole game and a winner for both plays.

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