MLB Betting Previews- Thursday, August 9 Parlay
The stretch run of a long and grueling MLB regular season is underway as the contenders in both the AL and NL continue to work their way towards the playoffs.
With quite a few key contests on Thursday’s slate of games, we crunched the numbers for all the betting trends and dug deep into the pitching matchups to uncover a two-team parlay that you can take to the bank.
Game 1: Kansas City Royals vs. Baltimore Orioles
Money Line: Kansas City +135 Baltimore-150
Total Line: 8.5
Kansas City can only sit back and try to play the role of spoiler in the first of this four-game weekend series and it will send Jeremy Guthrie to the mound to kick things off. The right-hander is just 3-12 this season with a 6.56 ERA but held Texas to three runs on six hits in his third outing with the team since coming over from Colorado.
Baltimore will go with Wei-Yin Chin as its starter for Thursday night. The left-hander is coming off one of his best performances the year; pitching seven innings of shutout ball against Tampa Bay. He is now 10-6 with a 3.46 ERA and has allowed a total of just seven earned runs in his last five starts.
The Royals are 2-9 in their last 11 games against a left-handed starter and just 2-5 in their last seven games at Camden Yards. Stick with the hot arm in this matchup as Chin keeps things going with another strong outing to help Baltimore secure the win to lock-up the first half of this parlay. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
Game 2: Cincinnati Reds vs. Chicago Cubs
Money Line: Cincinnati -115 Chicago +125
Total Line: 8
The Reds will get this four-game weekend set started with Mike Leake on the mound. He fell to 4-7 on the year after getting tagged with a loss to Pittsburgh last Saturday, but still held the Pirates to four runs on six hits in six innings of work. The right-hander’s overall ERA this season is 4.51 and he is 4-2 against the Cubs with a 3.20 ERA.
Chicago will go with Chris Volstad has its starter in this matchup. The right-hander is winless this season with a 0-8 record in 10 starts with an ERA of 7.22. He held the Dodgers to just two earned runs on six hits in his last outing but still came away with the loss. Volstad is 1-3 lifetime against the Reds with a 5.32 ERA.
Cincinnati has won six of the last eight meetings and is also 6-2 in Leake’s last eight starts against Chicago. There is no real reason to think these trends will not hold true this time around as well, so bank on the Reds to wrap-up the back-end of this parlay with a win.
