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Friday’s Best MLB, NHL & NBA Picks & Predictions

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No matter your sport of choice, there’s always sports betting action to be had. We’ll have you covered each and every day with our daily best bets. Here are all of our best bets across each major sport in action today.

Today’s Best Bets

Here are today’s best bets.

MLB Best Bets

Texas Rangers (+142) vs. Houston Astros (-168) | O/U 8.5 (-122/+100)

Martin Perez earned the first All-Star nomination of his 11-year career last year, largely because of how well he pitched at home. Perez has made 17 starts at Globe Life Field in his second stint with the Rangers and allowed zero or one earned run in 11 of them. Contrastly, life as a visitor against the Astros at Minute Maid Park is a different story, although he has a respectable 2.76 ERA in nine career appearances there. However, his strikeout totals are way down there (42 K’s in 62 innings), and he has struck out current Astros only a combined 20 times in 132 at-bats. Given that those same hitters have a combined slash line of .311/.367/.383 against Perez, it is more likely than not that he will have a shorter outing than a longer one.

Houston entered Thursday with a 9.9% strikeout rate against left-handed pitching, which is by far the lowest in the league. Meanwhile, righty Luis Garcia has actually been worse than his 7.00 ERA suggests (8.86 xERA). While he has lowered his xERA in each of the previous three seasons, his command has been an issue this year (11.1% walk rate), and he ranks in the bottom quarter of the league in xBA, xSLG, and barrel percentage allowed.

The Under has cashed in nine of the previous 12 meetings in Houston between these teams, but recent trends suggest the Over is the correct play. The Over has cashed in each of Texas’s last five games and six consecutive home games for the Astros.

Pick: Over 8.5 Runs (-122)

  • Mike Spector

Check out our other MLB Odds, Picks & Predictions:

NBA Play-In Game Best Bets

Oklahoma City Thunder at Minnesota Timberwolves

After an interesting week for the T-Wolves, Rudy Gobert (back spasms) and Karl-Anthony Towns (calf) are still questionable to play tonight. If they can go or not obviously gives Minnesota two different teams.

I again like the under. Against the Lakers, Minnesota went into overtime and still only managed 102 points. OKC doesn’t have the best defense, but it basically ranks the same as the Lakers in terms of efficiency. Plus, Minnesota isn’t exactly playing its best basketball right now. The Chemistry is off.

If there is one player I trust, it’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA). There is absolutely an outcome here of Minnesota imploding and the Thunder winning by 20-plus, so this is insurance for that. The BettingPros Prop Bet Cheat Sheet gives SGA going over his combo prop a 70 percent chance of hitting, so I love the odds.

  • Ryan Coleman

Check out our other NBA Play-In Game Best Bets:

NHL Best Bets

Buffalo Sabres (-155) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (+125) | O/U 7 (+110/-134)

To kick off Friday’s mini-slate, there is an Eastern Conference tilt with the Metropolitan Division’s Columbus Blue Jackets hosting the Atlantic Division’s Buffalo Sabres. After scoring in last night’s contest against the Ottawa Senators, superstar forward Tage Thompson possesses the chance to become Buffalo’s first 50-goal-scorer since Alexander Mogilny buried 76 in 1992-93.

Thompson will need a big game to accomplish the feat, but we are going to back him to find the back of the net at least once at -106 via BetRivers. A monster on the power play, Thompson is in the top five this season among goal scorers on the man advantage, which could provide Columbus a lot of trouble.

This season, the Jackets rank just 25th in the league in penalty kill goals against per 60 minutes. Furthermore, Columbus falls even shorter at even strength, ranking third-to-last in the league in expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5.

To make matters worse, half of the Jackets’ roster is going to miss the season finale due to maintenance or injury. Backing up this AHL-level lineup is goaltender Jon Gillies, who is projected to start on Friday evening.

Through two appearances in the crease this season, Gillies possesses a fade-worthy .846 save percentage and 4.62 goals against average. If he qualified, he would rank last among starting goaltenders in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes at 5-on-5.

Thompson has scored in each of his two appearances against the Jackets this season, including his five-goal outburst against them on December 7. In fact, Thompson has scored at least one goal in five of his last six outings against Columbus, a trend likely to continue on Friday as he looks to cap off his monstrous season.

Best Bet: Tage Thompson 1+ Goals (-106)

  • Tony Sartori


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