Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images. Pictured: Nolan Arenado.
Today is a day-game paradise for MLB bettors.
On Thursday’s loaded MLB slate, nine games will start before 4:15 p.m. ET. That leaves seven games set to roll on into the night, and that’s where our staff has focused their best bets.
DJ James and BJ Cunningham came through with picks for White Sox vs. Orioles and Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks in hopes of ending the night with some green dots in the Action Network app.
Check out both picks below, and use the table to navigate to either of the two games.
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MLB Odds & Picks
| Click on a game to skip ahead | |
| White Sox vs. Orioles | 8:10 p.m. ET |
| Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks | 9:40 p.m. ET |
White Sox vs. Orioles
| Pick | White Sox -1.5 (-109) |
| Book | DraftKings |
| Pitchers | Dylan Cease vs. Bruce Zimmerman |
| First Pitch | 8:10 p.m. ET |
DJ James: The White Sox are still the best hitting team against left-handed pitchers this season (133 wRC+).
They come off of a frustrating loss to the Cardinals on Wednesday afternoon with 24 runners left on base. Look for this to change on Thursday.
Bruce Zimmerman may not walk many batters, but the soft-tossing southpaw allows an average exit velocity of 90.2 MPH. His xERA is 6.15, so this is poor timing to be paired with a White Sox offense that looks to beat up on the American League’s weakest team for the next few days.
This could be a long night for the Baltimore pitching staff.
Dylan Cease will able to mow down Oriole hitters as long as he can maintain pitches in the strike zone. This is his only crux so far this season, but given his arsenal, the matchup with the Orioles should not be too daunting.
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Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks
| Pick | Cardinals -103 |
| Book | DraftKings |
| Pitchers | Carlos Martinez vs. Matt Peacock |
| First Pitch | 9:40 p.m. ET |
Brad Cunningham: Carlos Martinez hasn’t been great so far this season, posting a 5.27 xERA, but opponents are hitting only .215 against him, and he has a 1.12 WHIP.
Martinez mainly uses a fastball/slider combination as his main two pitches, and boy, do the Diamondbacks struggle against sliders. Arizona ranks 26th in baseball with -13.0 weighted slider runs already this season and has been below average against right-handed pitching, putting up only a .301 wOBA and 89 wRC+.
Matt Peacock has been really good for the Diamondbacks so far this season, posting a 3.36 xERA and 3.59 xFIP. However, he’s vastly outplaying his projections because his ERA and FIP before the season were projected to be well over 5.
He’s mainly a sinkerball pitcher, throwing it over 70% of the time, which will be welcome news for the Cardinals because they have six players with a wOBA over .390 against sinkers over the past two seasons. Additionally, Arizona’s bullpen has the sixth-highest xFIP in baseball.
I have the Cardinals projected at -132, so I think there’s some value on the Redbirds at -103. I would play them up to -117.
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