Major League Baseball is in full swing as most teams continue their second series of the season.
The NBA play-in tournament stole the late-evening headlines last night, but the day belongs to baseball once again. With a loaded slate of action and optimistic energy flowing throughout every clubhouse, every team will still be fighting as if they have the best chance to win the World Series.
Here are the best MLB bets for today, Wednesday, April 13.
Boston Red Sox vs Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox have split their current series 1-1, leaving Wednesday’s rubber match to decide the fate of the matchup. Detroit won the first game 3-1, and Boston took the second 5-3.
Former Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez will be on the mound for Detroit in the midweek battle. He will be facing Nathan Eovaldi.
Neither player produced a memorable first start of the 2022 season. Rodriguez will likely be spurred on by the fact that his former team let him walk in free agency.
Watch for Austin Meadows and Javier Baez to keep their bats hot against a Boston team that has not scored more than five runs in a game this year.
Los Angeles Dodgers vs Minnesota Twins
The Los Angeles Dodgers managed to put a slow start to the year behind them and beat the Minnesota Twins 7-2 in yesterday’s series opener. Today, they will send Clayton Kershaw onto the bump to take on Chris Paddack. He is severely outmatched by his counterpart.
The fact that the Dodgers got their bats going yesterday should be a huge help for them against a team as explosive as the Twins. Twins are amongst the league leaders in home runs hit.
L.A. was also extremely efficient yesterday, scoring seven runs with just eight hits. This bodes well against a team with boom-or-bust potential.
Take the Dodgers to win their second straight game against this opponent. They need to gather some momentum in their inevitable pennant challenge.
Houston Astros vs Arizona Diamondbacks
The year has only just begun, but the Arizona Diamondbacks’ start to their new campaign is eerily similar to how their 2021 season was defined, and that was by a lot of losses.
The D-Backs won their season opener only to drop four straight. That includes the series opener against the Astros which went 2-1 in favor of the visitors. Michael Brantley’s ninth-inning RBI gave Houston the extra push across the line.
The Astros have changed their roster slightly from last season. They are still one of the most talented teams at the plate with a strong pitching staff to complement. Rambler Valdez will get the starting nod at pitcher, making the job of Arizona even harder.
Bettors should strongly consider taking Houston at -1.5 because even though they did not cover last night. They are likely to hang all sorts of runs on the Diamondbacks, who have not seemed likely to show any sort of resistance.
