MLB Best Bets and Betting Picks for May 29 - Memorial Day
Just because today is Memorial Day, it doesn’t mean we can enjoy a little MLB betting action while paying tribute to those who have and are currently serving in the U.S. Military. The MLB Best Bets and Betting Picks may not have a full-slate from which to choose, but with 11 games split between the day and night, there are plenty of opportunities to keep our momentum rolling. Winning betting streaks need to be nourished and that’s just what we’re going to do with our best bets today as we build off a 9-3 run over my last three articles. We’ll look into the possibility of a same game parlay, but in the realm of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” we’re going to maintain the basic split of game bets and MLB player props that have yielded success thus far.
- Saturday’s Record: 2-1
- Season Record: 71-70-2
- Bankroll: -6.47 units
With an early Monday start let’s get to today’s action.
MLB Best Bets for May 29
Texas Rangers at Detroit Tigers
An early start a day after a game and travel are not ideal, but with the offensive roll the Rangers are on, their .358 wOBA against southpaws and the recent struggles we’ve seen from Tigers starter Matthew Boyd, we’re going to lean their way today, especially with Nathan Eovaldi on the bump. Not only has Eovaldi dominated with seven-straight quality starts, but his swing-and-miss stuff has been on display, posting a 13-percent swinging-strike rate while allowing just two runs or fewer in five of those seven starts. The Tigers may be coming off a nice run where they’ve posted a .342 wOBA over the last seven days, but that’s been against some suspect pitching by division rival Kansas City and Chicago and, overall, stil have just a .292 wOBA with a 23-percent strikeout rate against righties. As for the Texas offense, we already assessed that they crush lefties, so not only do we expect them to jump out to an early lead, but we expect some fireworks from a few players. We don’t trust the Texas bullpen, so let’s keep our game bet limited to the first five innings. We’ll also look to Adolis Garcia’s .865 OPS and .368 wOBA against southpaws as well.
Pick: Texas Rangers First 5 Innings -0.5 Run Line (-130 on DraftKings Sportsbook)
Pick: Adolis Garcia Hits + Runs + RBI over 1.5 (-135 on DraftKings Sportsbook)
Pittsburgh Pirates at San Francisco Giants
We’ve got a couple of veteran hurlers in decent match-ups today for this game and while everyone loves seeing fireworks on Memorial Day, they probably won’t be coming from this game. Rich Hill has been up-and-down all season and is coming off a poor outing against a tough Rangers lineup, but today he faces a Giants lineup that has struggled against southpaws all season. Not only is their .301 wOBA against lefties the sixth-lowest total in MLB, but they are also fanning at a 27.4-percent rate. While Hill has been pitching to more contact in his later years, he still has a strikeout rate near 23-percent which should play against a Giants team that is overly aggressive at the plate. On the other side, you have a reeling Pirates team that has lost four of its last five games and has averaged just under three runs per game in that span. DeSclafani has had his struggles as well, but should be able to minimize the damage today. And to look at the whole game, both bullpens have actually been strong over the past week.
Pick: Pirates/Giants under 8.5 runs (-115 on Caesars Sportsbook)
Colorado Rockies at Arizona Diamondbacks
Arizona is coming off losing two of three to the Red Sox at home and they’ve posted a pretty weak .288 wOBA over the past seven days. However, if there is a worse team to help give them the boost at home they need, it’s the Rockies who are 9-16 on the road this season and have covered the run-line less than 50-percent of the time since the start of 2021. Not good at all. The starting pitching match-up in this one also favors Arizona as Ryne Nelson is coming off his second-straight strong start while Karl Kauffmann has been a punching bag in his only two starts of the season. We can also bring bullpens into this one in case both starters struggle as that also tips the scales towards Arizona whose bullpen has a 3.09 ERA over the past week in comparison to Colorado’s 6.91 mark over the past week. And not only are we going to favor The Diamondbacks, but we’re also going to favor one of their top stars in Corbin Carroll who is destroying righthanded pitching with a .928 OPS and .393 wOBA.
Pick: Arizona Diamondbacks -1.5 Run Line (-110 on BetMGM)
Pick: Corbin Carroll over 1.5 total bases (+100 on BetMGM)
**all bets are one unit unless specifically mentioned