The past three days have been outstanding, as the Pennsylvania parlay cashed on Thursday and Friday and Saturday followed by cashing eight out of nine bets. The one loss came when Reading lost a draw in the final five minutes, but otherwise, it’s been a nice run of success for us here. Spreads are never easy to hit, but we had a good Sunday last week, and we’ll try to keep things going our way here with these picks for August 8.
REDS -1.5, -130
Fading the Pirates on the runline has been a brilliant choice for me as of late, as Pittsburgh has lost six of its past seven games and took all six losses by at least two runs. I played this one last Sunday when the Buccos came up against Philadelphia, and I’m going back to the well here. This is the right opponent to do it with, because the Reds have slaughtered Pittsburgh all season long. Cincinnati is 8-1 against the Pirates, and all eight have been by two runs or more. There’s another factor in the Reds’ favor here: Bryse Wilson’s team has lost six of his past seven starts, and five of those were by two runs or more. The one exception? The Pirates, before Wilson got traded to them.
NATIONALS +1.5, -115
The Nationals actually haven’t been that bad as of late, as they’re managing to stay in games and often carry the lead before handing things over to their weak bullpen. When they turn the game over to the bullpen, however, things start to get bad. But I don’t expect the Nationals’ bullpen will come into play too much here given that Washington is on the road. A home game might be a problem, but that extra chance on the road and the fact that they’re facing a hittable Max Fried makes them a reasonable runline play.
PHILADELPHIA +0.5, -115
Until New England shows that it can win without Carles Gil on the pitch, I don’t want any part of the Revolution. Philadelphia has drawn four of its past six road matches, and New England is coming off a scoreless draw with Nashville in which they hardly generated any real scoring chances. I’d rather take half a goal with the Union in this situation.
WHITE SOX -1.5, -130
The Cubs have really struggled in Zach Davies’ starts, losing seven of his past eight and taking six of seven defeats on the runline. The White Sox have won the first two games of this series on the runline, and with the Cubs’ lineup depleted by the deadline deals, there’s a good chance that the Sox complete the sweep with another comfortable win on the North Side.
