Here are 4 wise wagers for May 20 AppleTV+ games
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Friday night, as always, features two games on AppleTV+. I’ll give you some bets to make for these games so you can sweat along as you watch them! Tonight, features the St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates and the Texas Rangers at Houston Astros.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter for more betting content @SBuchanan24.
Cardinals at Pirates
The wager: Adam Wainwright over 4.5 strikeouts
Line: +105 (bet $100 to win $105)
I like getting this prop at plus money. Wainwright isn’t a big strikeout pitcher, posting a K/9 of 7.4 through 40 innings this season. That said, he’s facing a Pirates team that’s been striking out a lot during the month of May. The 24.6% K% they’ve combined for is the seventh highest in the league. While Wainwright isn’t going to blow you away with his stuff at this point of his career, he did face the Pirates last month and whiffed six through six innings. Wainwright has hovered around this 4.5 total in almost every start and has gone over it in four of seven. With this being at plus money, I’m more than willing to take this play against a struggling Pittsburgh offense.
Cardinals at Pirates
The wager: Tommy Edman over 1.5 bases
Line: -105 (bet $100 to win $95)
I like this spot for Edman against Pirates starter Zach Thompson. Since being called up last season, Thompson has struggled against lefties, which Edman will hit at the top of the Cardinals’ lineup. In his career against lefties, Thompson owns a .330 wOBA, a 4.62 FIP, and just a 7.1 K/9. Edman doesn’t strikeout much and produces a ton of contact at the plate. With that in mind, we’ve seen him go over 1.5 bases in 14 games, which is around 37% of his games. With the struggles that Thompson has against lefties, I like taking this one for Edman, who should see at least four at-bats in this game.
Rangers at Astros
The wager: Houston Astros team total under 4.5 runs
Line: -120 (bet $100 to win $83.33)
The team total for the Astros seems to be a run too high. When the Rangers brought back Martín Pérez, it didn’t exactly come across as a groundbreaking move. However, Pérez has been nothing short of fantastic through seven starts. His 2.01 ERA currently ranks as the sixth best in the league amongst starters with at least 40 innings pitched. His advanced numbers back that up as well, as he boasts an xERA of 2.50 and a 2.34 FIP. Pérez has also been keeping the ball in the park, as he’s yet to allow a home run. In all, Pérez has been as good as advertised and hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down.
I think taking the under on the Astros team total is the way to go here. Sure, this offense is a scary one to take the under on, but we saw Pérez make a start against this team last month. In that game, he tossed seven brilliant innings, allowing just one run on two hits while striking out four and not issuing a walk. His 1.29 ERA in that game was backed up by a 1.96 FIP, further showing how good he’s been. Give me the under 4.5 runs for the Astros in this game.
Rangers at Astros
The wager: Rangers first 5 innings Moneyline
Line: +140 (bet $100 to win $140)
This bet goes hand in hand with the one above, taking the Rangers to be winning the game through the first five innings. With the way Pérez has been pitching, I like the Rangers to get the lead off Astros starter Cristian Javier. He was really roughed up in his last start against the Nationals, allowing seven runs on eight hits through just 3 2/3 innings. That isn’t normally what Javier does on the mound, as that start accounted for almost all the appearances has made. When looking at these two pitchers, Pérez has been the more consistent of the two and the Rangers' offense has been hitting extremely well as of late. Coming into this game, the Rangers are averaging 6.2 runs over the last five games. As fairly big underdogs in a matchup they could realistically win, I love getting them at +140 in this spot.
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