Will Sean Manaea take advantage of a matchup against the Colorado Rockies and their strikeout-prone hitters? Will Yonny Chirinos strike out at least five batters for the fourth time in five starts when he takes on the Cincinnati Reds? And will Oneil Cruz record at least one total base against the Chicago White Sox?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Friday, July 12th's MLB games.
This Season: 68-50-3
Will Sean Manaea take advantage of a matchup against the Colorado Rockies and their strikeout-prone hitters? Will Yonny Chirinos strike out at least five batters for the fourth time in five starts when he takes on the Cincinnati Reds? And will Oneil Cruz record at least one total base against the Chicago White Sox?
Here are the best PrizePicks plays for Friday, July 12th's MLB games.
This Season: 68-50-3
Friday’s Best MLB PrizePicks Player Predictions
Manaea has 87 strikeouts in 89.1 innings. Considering that he's basically already throwing one strikeout per inning, it wouldn't be surprising to see him have a lot of success against the lineup with the fourth-most strikeouts in the league. However, the under is the right play tonight.
Manaea has struck out more than six batters just three times this season. One of the main reasons for this is his inability to go deeper than 6.0 innings. He's pitched more than 6.0 innings just once this season, and in that game, he only struck out five batters. The Rockies strike out a lot, but Manaea doesn't have good career numbers against them. He's only recorded 10 strikeouts in 59 at-bats.
Chirinos has struck out at least four batters in all four of his starts. In the three starts where he's pitched 5.0 innings, he's struck out either five or six batters. If Chirinos can go at least 5.0 innings tonight, then he could set a new season-high in strikeouts against the sixth-most strikeout-prone team in the league.
But Chirinos going 5.0 innings is not guaranteed. Chirinos has given up three earned runs in each of his last two starts. One of those performances came against the lowest-scoring team in the MLB. Tonight he faces a solid lineup that he has very little history against. Look for him to just miss this number as he gets chased before he finishes the fifth inning.
Cruz has hit safely in six of his last seven games. In three of those six appearances, he has recorded two hits. He also has three extra-base hits during that span. While his numbers of late are good, he will still have his work cut out for him tonight against Garrett Crochet.
Crochet has allowed just 79 hits in 105.1 innings. He's also struck out 146 batters. But Crochet has also allowed 10 home runs and has a 3.08 ERA. Cruz will likely strike out in this game, seeing as he has already been rung up 108 times this season. But Crochet will offer him opportunities to extend his hot hitting. This may look like a mismatch on paper, but Crochet isn't untouchable, and Cruz is hot right now.
Phil Wood is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Phil, check out his archive and follow him @Phil_Wood_Jr.
