Our in-house baseball expert Billy J (-1.05 Units) breaks down his best bets for tonight action!
I am going to the snake pit back-to-back picks this week. Instead of playing the over/under on the game or the Diamondbacks, I’m riding the momentum wave that is the Phillies and their rejuvenated 7-game winning streak. The Phillies are one of the hottest teams in baseball and the bats are coming alive. As of now it looks like the managerial changes from Joe Girardi to interim manager Rob Thomson has been the right call so far as Thomson is 6-0 as the new Phillies skipper.
After a short 3-game road series in which the Phillies swept the Milwaukee Brewers, they return home to a crowd who is eager to get rowdy and root for their hometown team to start making a push to playoff contention. The task won’t be easy here as the Phillies will face someone who for the lack of better words has dominated them in Zac Gallen. In his two career starts against the Phillies, Gallen is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 12 strikeouts.
Gallen in his last start against the Pirates suffered his first loss of the year. There was no run support provided whatsoever and the Diamondbacks were eventually shoutout 3-0. Despite the one lone loss, Gallen is still having an All-Star season in which he is 4-1 with a 2.40 ERA. He is opposed by Kyle Gibson who comes into today’s contest with a 4.40 ERA and a .256 BA against. Gibson had a 3-game streak prior to his last start where he only had given up two earned runs in each start, but was roughed up by a struggling Angels team in his last start for five earned runs. A Bryce Harper grand slam in the 8th inning of that game got him off the hook to avoid his third losing start of the season.
When looking at this contest there is definitely an edge in the starting pitching matchup. Gibson hasn’t had anywhere near the stellar of a season as Gallen. What he does have on his side are far better home/road splits in that he is 3-1 with a 3.48 ERA opposed to his 5.70 road ERA. With the opportunity to get back to .500 and continue this torrid stretch here in June, I like the Phillies here to grab game one of the series
The Pick: Phillies -130 currently on SugarHouse
Bonus Pick: Fun Friday longshot underdog money line parlay of the day
A’s +145 / Marlins +135 / Rays +100 – 0.25 unit at +1051 odds – Currently on Sugarhouse
*To duplicate these bets and take advantage of all the great signup bonuses offered at SugarHouse click here