MLB Betting: Pirates vs Giants & Orioles vs Rays – 06/18/22

In today’s MLB betting guide, the San Francisco Giants look to continue playing well against their opponent the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the Tampa Bay Rays seek to break their slump against the bottom-feeder of the AL East in the Baltimore Orioles.

Pittsburgh Pirates (+160) vs San Francisco Giants (-180)

The Giants visit the Pirates playing well of late. The Pirates on the other hand are 1-9 in their past 10 and come in having lost their last game against the Giants 2-0. As the fifth highest ranked team in runs per game at 4.9, the Giants haven’t been able to reach that mark very often of late and have been relying on their pitching and defense to win them games. The Giants have scored five or more runs in just two of their past 10 games.


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Giants’ starter today, Alex Wood’s numbers should be better than they are. He has a 4.11 ERA (earned run average) but a 3.12 FIP (fielding independent pitching), which means the defense has done him no favours when he’s been pitching. Despite that, he has been solid with striking out opposing batters and limiting walks since he gives up more hits against than innings pitched. Pirates’ pitcher Jose Quintana has been solid all around but has had the misfortune of playing for the lowly Pirates to hold his win/loss record to 1-4. Though his numbers look similar to that of Wood’s, Quintana has given up four earned runs in each of his past two games while Wood has given up three in his last 13 innings of work. Take the Giants to continue to shut down the Pirates and the under in this one (U8.5, -115).

Baltimore Orioles (+145) vs Tampa Bay Rays (-175)

The Rays have been faltering of late but have a good matchup in order to turn things around against a pretty bad Orioles team. The Rays have lost four in a row and are 4-6 in their past 10 games, but three of those losses came against the New York Yankees who seem unstoppable offensively and defensively. The Rays tend to consistently rely on pitching to win them games, and today will be no different.

They have Jeffrey Springs on the mound who owns a 1.45 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP (walks+hits per inning pitched), has 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings, and keeps the walks pretty low. His ERA may be a little deceiving as his FIP is 3.16, but the defense of the Rays is strong behind him. The Orioles have rookie Kyle Bradish taking the mound as the 25th-ranked offense of the Rays may be able to tag him for a few runs and get going offensively. Bradish has a 6.86 ERA and has given up 10 home runs in 42 innings pitched. Ryan Mountcastle and Austin Hays will be the two Orioles’ betters to watch if they are to get on the board against Springs and the Rays. But since the pitching matchup is very one-sided, take the Rays to win this game and the under to hit (U8, +100).

Odds via Yahoo and BetMGM.

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