Friday's Best Bets: Picks, Predictions, Odds
The Yankees may have been pushed to the brink on Thursday, but they managed to survive in Oakland. There’s a lot to like about their side of the matchup in the second game of their series vs. the A’s, so that’s where my focus primarily lies with my DraftKings Sportsbook picks for Friday’s action. But, my attention won’t solely limited to that game. Here’s what I like on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday’s MLB slate of games.
If you want to sweat out these picks with me, follow me on Twitter: @Nick_Friar.
Left-handed pitchers haven’t exactly been racking up strikeouts against Cleveland in August. But six strikeouts isn’t exactly a big to-do for Rodriguez. His last outing was quite the outlier from a strikeout perspective. Over his last seven starts, he’s hit the over on Friday’s strikeout props five times. Aside from his last start, the only other time he went under Friday’s prop was his migraine-shortened start against the Yankees on July 23.
But the biggest reason I like the over on this prop vs. Cleveland actually does have to do with E-Rod’s most recent outing. The Boston lefty has given up four-plus runs in seven starts since May 12, excluding his last start (five runs). In the seven starts that directly followed one of those four-plus run outings, he’s hit Friday’s over six times. Now, E-Rod has given up his share of runs in some of those games, but it’s almost as if he’s trying to do more on his own after every rough outing — which seems to result in more strikeouts.
Gerrit Cole’s final start of each month in 2021 has gone one of two ways: extremely well or extremely poorly. There’s been no in between. But that’s more of an interesting note rather than something that should indicate how he’ll perform vs. Oakland on Friday.
I’m more interested in how he’s pitched since his return from the COVID-injured list. Cole has faced two less-than-terrifying lineups for right-handed pitchers in those outings, between the Twins and Angels, and he’s taken advantage of those opportunities. The A’s aren’t a team that should strike fear into the heart of any righty either. They’re season numbers against right-handers are very similar to Minnesota’s and only a tick worse than the Angels’.
While the Angels have struggled against righties even more of late, the Twins have been one of the tougher teams on right-handed pitchers recently. Yet, Cole chucked six scoreless vs. Minnesota last time. Oakland has been hitting righties a little better than usual of late — and they just tagged Jameson Taillon on Thursday — but they haven’t done enough to lead me to believe they’ll do much against Cole.
Joey Gallo hit a nuke on Thursday, and he could very well do so again on Friday. In 109 career plate appearances (94 at-bats) at Oakland Coliseum, the left-hander has nine home runs. He’ll get another shot to go yard against Manaea, who he’s taken deep twice in 18 career plate appearances (16 at-bats) — one of which came at Oakland earlier this season, not the pop fly-friendly Yankee Stadium.
But this isn’t about backing Gallo solely. He’s just part of a Yankees lineup that’s seventh in OPS and sixth in wOBA against left-handed pitching. Meanwhile, Manaea has given up at least one home run in five of his last seven starts. Also, the Oakland lefty has given up a home run in nine of his 13 starts at home this season.
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