MLB Best Bets for Saturday, May 7, 2022

Two rainouts and a higher-ish scoring first half of a game yesterday put us at 0-1-2 on the Friday slate. Let's see if the skies open up and we get more action tomorrow.

White Sox at Red Sox

Dylan Cease takes the ball for the White Sox today, and he has been one of the brighter spots on the White Sox team so far. Cease comes in after back-to-back quality starts and has only allowed eight earned runs through 29 innings this season. It is a smaller sample, but Boston hitters are not great against Cease, having just six hits in 22 at-bats. Take out Bogaerts and that drops down to three hits in 19 at-bats. On the hill, Nick Pivetta, has also allowed a ton of hits and runs this year. In just 20.2 innings, he’s allowed 25 hits and 18 earned runs. Other than the game being at Fenway, I'm not understanding why the side favors the Red Sox. I'll play the White Sox to win at -104.

Brewers at Braves

Now we get the opportunity to talk about two aces, or quasi-aces facing off in this game. Corbin Burnes has been great this season so far, which is a bit to my surprise. I didn’t expect him to have the success of last season, but so far, he has been great. Atlanta hitters have been good against him, though. Aside from his first start, against the Reds of all teams, Fried has been dominant. He’s had three straight quality starts. He has also been much more dominant against the Brewers than Burnes has against the Braves. I’ll play the Braves in the first five innings at +104.

Rockies at Diamondbacks

I’ve said this a lot last season – if it weren’t for sports betting we probably wouldn’t pay much attention to teams like the Rockies or Diamondbacks. Kyle Freeland is throwing for the Rockies, and as I’ve mentioned previously, he used to be a guy you could really depend on when he was throwing at home. He is a streaky pitcher no matter how you look at it. In his last 17 innings, he’s allowed four earned runs. Not too shabby. He is allowing a lot of hits, though, so there is some concern. Zach Davies is throwing for the Diamondbacks. He’s been, well, almost exactly what he has done through his career to this point. He's fine, but isn’t exactly dominant. Rockies hitters are batting just .207 against him and they are notoriously worse away from Coors. I’m going to play the under on the game.