August 9 just isn’t a great day for the sports calendar. We’re still four days away from the return of the Bundesliga, there’s nothing from MLS, there’s not even anything from the Veikkausliiga. At this point, I’d even take NFL preseason football, but we don’t even have that going for us. All we’ve got is baseball and a few scattered soccer matches in South America. But we’ll play with what we’ve got on a day that’s tended to be pretty good to us. Here are our best bets for August 9.
ROYALS, +155
The Yankees finally figured out how to win a series opener against Seattle, but now they’ve got to do so against Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals have been a tough out in western Missouri, having won seven of their past 10 at home. The last time they were here, they swept the Tigers and took three out of four from the White Sox, upsetting both of those teams’ momentum. The Yankees are riding high right now, but they’re in a prime spot for an upset in this one.
BREWERS, -200
Yes, there’s very little value here. But the reality is that Milwaukee has plenty to play for and the Cubs simply do not. The Brewers have struggled to hold leads against the Giants, but the Cubs have a lot less to play with than San Francisco and just don’t have the hitters needed to take advantage of bullpen problems from Milwaukee. Plus, Freddy Peralta has held nine of his past 10 opponents to two runs or less. The Brewers should be fine here.
WHITE SOX, -190
The Pale Hose looked very good against the Cubs during the Windy City series, and although it’s clear that the North Siders are falling apart, Chicago’s American League team should have enough to hold off Minnesota. That’s because the Twins are going with a bullpen game and Beau Burrows hasn’t really shown much to suggest he can get the job done. This might be a good over play, but for the moneyline, we’ll stick with the Sox.
MARLINS, +205
In this game, the bet I want is the under, because Zach Thompson is pitching pretty well as of late and I think Joe Musgrove has things figured out at this point. I’m taking the Marlins here because there is zero value with the Padres and San Diego didn’t look impressive at all in its series with Arizona. Miami got blitzed in Denver against the Rockies, but the Marlins can easily put the past behind them because they’ve got no pressure on them at all. If you want to play moneyline here, this offers the best value.
