Today's Taste: Best MLB Bets (4/11/23)

It’s a big time Tuesday slate on diamond. Your boy is looking at several aces this evening. Let’s get to work.

 

New York Yankees (-172) @ Cleveland Guardians (+144) | Over/Under 8

 

Gerrit Cole will toe the rubber tonight against a Cleveland Guardians team that has won seven of their last 10 outings. Will the Cole Train be enough to overcome this surging Cleveland squad?

 

Cole has had a nice start to his 2023 campaign, compiling 19 strikeouts in 12.1 innings while allowing only one earned run. He dominated the Giants and Phillies in his first two starts of the year. Now he draws a Cleveland team that is playing some good baseball at the moment. For the Yankees ace, he was superb against this team in 2022. In four starts (including the postseason), Cole only allowed five earned in 26 innings of work (struck out 31 batters). Furthermore, he recorded the win in every one of those contests. Cleveland’s offense has been okay at best, but only two of their starting bats have an average over .300, and nobody on the team has more than two homers.

 

The Yankees have taken all three of their series thus far, but with the loss last night, they are in danger of dropping their first of the year if they don’t win tonight with their ace on the bump. The moneyline for NYY is too stiff, and the strikeout number is tough to trust against one of best lineups in the MLB at not punching out. The best look for me this evening is Cole to record the win. Cole has recorded six wins in the last 10 regular season starts.

 

 

Pick: Gerrit Cole to record the win -105

 

Boston Red Sox (+154) @ Tampa Bay Rays (-184) | Over/Under 7

 

Oh baby, don’t stop me now. We have another star-studded ace toeing the rubber tonight. That would be Sugar Shane Daddy McClanahan. I routinely said this a lot last year, McClanahan has the best and most electric arsenal as a lefty since Randy Johnson. Here’s a guy who throws four pitches, all for strikes, with insane movement. The question is, “how do we attack this game tonight?”

 

The Rays are out to their best start since ever. No team has started a season 10-0 since the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers! At some point you figure they have to lose soon. Every game is becoming a prediction of when that will happen. With Sugar Shane on the mound tonight, I can’t say it will happen this evening. McClanahan has logged two quality starts in two tries so far, beating down the Tigers and Nationals. After uncharacteristically walking four batters in six innings in his last start against Washington, he’ll be looking for a “bounce back.” On the schedule is a Red Sox team that hit lefty pitching well (.265) a season ago. But for Sugar Shane, he dominated Boston last year with a 2.03 ERA and .191 OBA in two outings. Since the start of 2022, he has notched 20 quality starts out of 30 tries. 

 

With the Sox throwing youngster Garrett Whitlock, there is opportunity for the Rays to pounce on him early in his first outing of 2023. He only started nine games in 31 appearances after being transitioned into a primarily reliever role in the second half. This sets up nicely to back a scorching Tampa team.

 

Similar to the Yanks, the moneyline is too high to take the Rays. And the strikeouts are fun, but you always worry about Kevin Cash’s short leash on his starters. The best way to attack this for me is taking McClanahan to record the win at a juicy price. Out of his last 19 starts where he factored into the decision, Sugar has recorded the win in 13 of his last 19 tries.

 

Pick: Shane McClanahan to record the win +145