Thursday features a short slate of baseball with the majority of the games taking place this afternoon. I’ll give you some of my favorite plays you can tail on DraftKings Sportsbook.
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San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers
The Pick: Giants moneyline +120
The Dodgers are finally getting Clayton Kershaw back in the rotation today. Making his season debut, it’s a much needed boost for a team that simply needs arms in the starting five. But, seeing as this is his first start of the year, Kershaw will be limited with a pitch count. You can’t even take an “outs recorded” prop on Kershaw today, as we simply don’t know how long he’ll be in. Meanwhile, we’ll have Logan Webb, who’ll be facing the Dodgers for the fourth time this season (I didn’t even know that was possible with the flat schedule these teams have) and has seen mixed results. Webb has one bad start and two good starts against this Dodgers team, combining for 15.2 innings allowing seven runs on 15 hits and 16 strikeouts. Five of those seven runs came back in his first start against this team in April, where he only went 3.2 innings. Since then, he’s thrown 13 solid innings against this ball club. The Giants also have the bullpen advantage, as the Dodgers are enduring a really tough stretch with injuries and heavy usage. I’ll take the underdog Giants in this spot at +120.
Toronto Blue Jays vs Tampa Bay Rays
The Pick: Chris Bassitt over 5.5 strikeouts -130
The Rays offense continue to limp their way through the 2024 season. Sure, it’s only been six games since the All-Star Break but they’re slashing just .188/.274/.396 since then with a 26% K%, which is the second highest mark in the league. It’s simply a continuation of where this team has been all season long. Today, they’ll face Bassitt for the third time, who has 11 strikeouts through 10.2 innings. Bassitt has recorded at least six strikeouts in exactly half of his starts this season and one of those was against this Rays club. His other start, he landed on five, so he’s been in this range both times. With the Rays struggles and the club continuing to be without Yandy Daiz, who is off on personal leave, I think Bassitt records at least six strikeouts this afternoon.
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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests. The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment in building lineups.
