MLB Best Bets Today May 13<\/p>\n
The 5-5-5 MLB format is back, as all 30 teams take the field with five games in each league and five interleague matchups. Our first game doesn\u2019t start until 6:10 p.m. ET, so that means all day to survey the card and find the top available plays. The quarter pole is officially here or has passed for every team, so we\u2019re already through a quarter of the season. It sure seems like it\u2019s flown by.<\/p>\n
Several games do have weather concerns and pitchers may have to pitch through the rain in order to get the games in, so we\u2019ll see how those play out. Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Cleveland are the hottest spots to follow for precipitation, but more than half of today\u2019s games have a chance of delays, postponements, or late starts.<\/p>\n
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This article will run Monday-Saturday and I\u2019ll write up a standalone preview for Sunday Night Baseball on Sundays. This year, we\u2019ll also have MLB best bets from Greg Peterson<\/a> posted with overnight lines.<\/p>\n My tracking sheet is here<\/a>. For transparency sake, I also have tracking for my three MLB seasons at VSiN (2024<\/a>, 2023<\/a>, 2022<\/a>).<\/p>\n Odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook because they are widely available to readers and because of some of our betting tools. I highly, highly, highly encourage you to shop around for the best lines. Sometimes they will be at DK. Oftentimes, they will not. Do what you can to shop around and get as much bang for your buck as possible.<\/p>\n Feel free to use my opinions and thoughts, as well as our suite of MLB Betting Tools, including the DraftKings and Circa Betting Splits<\/a>, Steve Makinen\u2019s Daily Ratings<\/a>, Greg Peterson\u2019s Daily Lines<\/a>, the 1st 5 Innings Analyzer<\/a>, and Umpire Stats<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chicago White Sox at Cincinnati Reds (-205, 9)<\/p>\n 6:40 p.m. ET<\/p>\n A rested and reinvigorated Reds team should be ready to take advantage of a soft spot on the schedule this week with the White Sox in town. Cincinnati just wrapped up a seven-game road trip and hadn\u2019t had a scheduled day off since April 24. They got a rainout on April 29, but then played a doubleheader the next day. They were off on Monday and should be ready to get back on track, as they\u2019ve dropped seven of their last nine.<\/p>\n Andrew Abbott\u2019s season got off to a late start, as he didn\u2019t debut until April 12, but the 25-year-old has been terrific thus far. He has a 2.25 ERA with a 2.65 xERA and a 3.65 FIP. He\u2019s struck out 31 over 24 innings and has allowed just a 25.5% Hard Hit%. His lone dud of a start came in Colorado, where he allowed four runs on five hits over four innings. He isn\u2019t working all that deep into games, as he has been a little bit limited early in the season, but he\u2019s on two extra days rest here and threw 91 pitches last time out, his second-highest output of the season.<\/p>\n The White Sox have a .265 wOBA against lefties. They only have a 6.4% BB% paired with a 24.1% K%, so this is the type of start that should help Abbott\u2019s walk rate and also keep his strikeout rate high and healthy. The White Sox are also 28th in HR\/FB% in that split, so that\u2019s something that should also help an extreme fly ball guy like Abbott. Chicago\u2019s 35.4% Pull% is the third-lowest against LHP.<\/p>\n Jonathan Cannon has been flirting with disaster of late. He has a 4.09 ERA with a 4.40 xERA and a 4.68 FIP. He is a low-strikeout, high-walk pitcher right now who has also allowed more than a hit per inning. Cannon\u2019s last two starts have been six innings with two runs, but he\u2019s allowed nine hits in each one of them. He\u2019s actually very fortunate to be running a 79.9% LOB% with his 16.9% K%.<\/p>\n The Reds have stolen 47 bases and they\u2019re tied for third, so if Cannon continues giving up a lot of hits, Cincinnati may force the issue on the bases. I typically don\u2019t like to play the \u201cdouble negative\u201d, the run line at a minus price on a home team that may only bat eight times, but it seems pretty applicable here, especially with a huge discrepancy between starters and also bullpens, as the Reds, despite some regression signs, are still a top-10 relief unit by ERA. The White Sox are not close to that.<\/p>\n Pick: Reds Run Line -1.5 (-102)<\/p>\n Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets (-245, 7.5)<\/p>\n 7:10 p.m. ET<\/p>\n