Outkick Bets: A TNF Winner and Diamond Cashers
New York Giants @ Washington Football Team UNDER 20.5, 1ST HALF (-120)
Let's go ahead and prime the pump for Thursday night's NFL matchup between the New York Giants and Washington Football Team. Denver limited the effectiveness of the return Saquon Barkley to almost zero, in fact, they allowed more rushing yards to Daniel Jones. Despite some of the numbers, things could have been worse for the Giants considering Jerry Jeudy's high-ankle sprain and KJ Hamler dropping a wide-open touchdown.
Washington's offense was not expected to be much this season and it wasn't. The defense was good for the most part against the Chargers even after being on the field for THIRTY-SIX MINUTES OF THE GAME! This game looks like an ugly, old-school NFC East dog fight is headed to our televisions. I just don't know where the scoring is going to come from. Give me the first half under!
Colorado Rockies @ Atlanta Braves UNDER 8.5 (-105)
I love this matchup. The Braves are pitching Huascar Ynoa, an overlooked high-quality starter against the Rockies. He's pitched four quality games in his last five and the last one that wasn't "quality" was to Colorado where he gave up just four runs in a 4-3 loss at Coors Field. He's been dependable, reliable and shown flashes of nasty.
On the other side is Antonio Senzatela who gets no love because of the garbage can franchise he's playing with and it's not fair to him, but plenty to us. He's tossed six straight games allowing three runs or fewer including that 4-3 win vs. Atlanta for which Ynoa got the L. That streak, by the way, goes back to nine of his last ten. Both these teams are in the lower third of baseball in batting average recently and even though three of their four games in a series all went over nine runs, that was ten days ago. That was at Coors Field and that one game that didn't, featured these two starting pitchers. I'm all over the under.
Oakland Team Total OVER 4.5 (-104) @ Kansas City
We end this thing in a city I have great affection for (ask me later), Kansas City where Oakland rides into town looking to keep pace in the American League Wild Card race. Oakland will send Sean Manaea to the hill and he's been a little hard to nail down since the All-Star break with his team losing five of his last seven starts but we aren't worried about him tonight.
Instead, our eyes go to his counterpart, Mike Minor. He's been a model of consistency allowing 0, 3, 3, 3, and 3 runs in his last five starts. In those same starts, his team has allowed 9, 4, 6, 6, and 6 runs to their opponents. I don't want to overthink this one especially since the A's are in the top five of MLB in average, slugging, runs and RBI in the past two weeks. I am playing the hits and Oakland to get enough of them to go over 4.5 runs.