We hit the trifecta again on Sunday! That made our overall record for last week to be 17-1, giving us an imaginary $139.34 in winnings, if we were making an imaginary $10 wager on each bet. That totally wipes out our losses from the previous week and sends us into this week on house money. I was also the top-ranked MLB Expert for Tallysight last week, with a 77.4% return on your investment. All of this probably means that we’re coming back down to reality this week, but we’re going to keep the formula rolling anyway.
| Week | Record | Net |
| July 17-24 | 7-7 | $-19.60 |
| July 23-30 | 17-1 | $139.34 |
Today’s game is taking us to Chicago for the Reds (58-49) vs. the Cubs (53-52). I’m pretty sure that this will be the first time that we’ve covered either of these teams for this feature.
The Pitchers
Cincinnati is coming into enemy territory with Andrew Abbott (6-2, 1.90 ERA) as its weapon on the mound. Abbot has been dominant in each of his last two starts, collecting wins on both occasions and striking out a combined 15 batters without allowing a single earned run. Over his last five games, he’s allowed an average of just 1.8 runs per game.
Chicago is placing its trust in Marcus Stroman (10-7, 3.51 ERA) on the mound. He’s had it rough as of late, allowing a combined 11 runs in the last two games while not even making it through four innings either time. Over his last five starts he’s allowed an average of 4.2 runs per game, but he did pick up a win on July 15 against Boston.
The Lineups
Jake Fraley leads Cincinnati’s lineup with 15 home runs and 62 RBI. TJ Friedl leads the Reds with a .285 batting average. Over the last five games, Cincinnati has scored an average of 4.2 runs per game.
Patrick Wisdom leads the Cubs in home runs (18), while Nico Hoerner paces the team in batting average (.273) and RBI (57). Chicago has averaged 5.6 runs per game over the last five games.
The Streaks
Chicago’s loss to St. Louis on Sunday snapped an eight-game winning streak that went all the way back to July 21st.
Cincinnati is coming to Chicago after beating the Dodgers, 9-0, in L.A. on Sunday.
The Odds
Cubs -1.5
Cubs -120 on the Moneyline
O/U 8
We made a killing off of underdogs last week and it looks like we’re going to start off this week with a dog as well. The Reds are getting -200 as a one-and-a-half run dog. That means Vegas is really anticipating them to keep this close. I don’t expect them to keep it close, though. I expect them to win outright and we’re getting +100 to take Cincinnati on the moneyline. The Reds seem to have the better pitcher in this and that’s what we’re banking on here. I’m also keeping with last week’s trend and picking the under in this one as well.
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