The Arizona Diamondbacks are 10 games under .500 and 29 games out of first place in the NL West. But in recent weeks, they’ve got something to get excited about every fifth game.
Pitcher Zac Gallen has been pretty awesome lately.
Gallen has not allowed a run in four of his last six starts. He has thrown 21.1 innings his last three starts and nobody has scored on him. In his last six starts, Gallen has a 0.92 ERA and 0.69 WHIP. Opponents are slugging .182 off him, which is ridiculous. Arizona is 6-0 in those six starts.
Gallen isn’t a household name but he has been very good to bettors, and it’s not too expensive to bet on him Wednesday. Arizona plays the Kansas City Royals, who are 25 games under .500, and the Diamondbacks are a reasonable -135 favorite at BetMGM.
Gallen has been the fourth-most profitable starting pitcher to bettors this season according to Covers.com. Anyone betting $100 on every one of Gallen’s starts is up $700. That’s pretty good considering the Diamondbacks are nowhere near .500 or the playoff race.
Gallen is having a nice breakout season in relative anonymity because Arizona isn’t very good. But bettors are just worried about cashing tickets, even if it’s on a Diamondbacks-Royals game that nobody else will be paying much attention to.
Here’s a first look at the rest of the sports betting slate:
MLB slate has 14 games
There are six afternoon MLB games on Wednesday, and the best one is probably the Cleveland Guardians at the San Diego Padres. The Guardians are in first place of the AL Central, but the Padres are -165 favorites with Blake Snell on the mound. Snell has been on a roll lately, but it’s still a heavy number to lay against a good Cleveland team.
There are a lot of big favorites on Wednesday evening. Five of the eight games at night have a favorite of at least -200.
WNBA Game 3
There’s some drama in the WNBA playoffs. There will be a winner-take-all Game 3 on Wednesday night between the Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings. The Sun are 5.5-point road favorites against the Wings. The sixth-seed Wings got the upset win in Game 2 to push the best-of-three series to a decisive game.
What’s the best bet?
I’ll back Zac Gallen and the Diamondbacks, although Brady Singer of the Royals faces him and Singer has been very good lately too. I’ll skip Arizona as a best bet and pivot to the Baltimore Orioles at +100 against the Chicago White Sox. Lucas Giolito is going for an inconsistent Chicago team, and Giolito is in the middle of a miserable season.