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Under in Play for Chris Sale vs. Zack Wheeler Game 2 Battle on Thursday Night
By Joe Tansey
Published:
If a good, ol’ fashioned pitchers’ duel is your cup of tea, well, Thursday night’s Braves/Phillies game is for you.
Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler are facing off in a game with an over/under set at 7.5.
The Phillies have had a few games this season where they would have cleared that number on their own, but we likely won’t see the two teams put a high number of players on the bases.
Sale’s allowed four earned runs across 26.1 innings in May. He’s lasted over six innings in three of those four starts. He went 5.2 innings in the other appearance.
Wheeler’s been even better with two earned runs conceded in 26.2 May innings. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in each of his last three starts.
You’ll have to wait until Game 1 of the doubleheader for some sportsbooks to release player props, but based on an early look around the shops, Sale and Wheeler’s strikeout props both sit at 6.5.
You’ll likely be able to combine Sale and Wheeler to have 6 Ks each to get to around -130, which means the 7 Ks SGP easily puts you over plus money.
Wheeler’s had 31 strikeouts this month. He had eight or nine Ks in three of those four appearances. Sale has the same numbers with at least 8 Ks in three of his last four appearances.
The full game under 7.5 is obviously in play here, but with how little Sale and Wheeler have given up lately, I’d look into the first five innings under 3.5 as well. It’s a bit of a risk because one or two swings could kill that prop, but the numbers are just too good to ignore at the moment.
I wouldn’t try to be too much of a contrarian with the incredible form both pitchers are in, but there are some enticing head-to-head numbers that could make you pull the trigger on some batter props. Most notably, Kyle Schwarber has two home runs and a .444 batting average versus Sale. Ronald Acuna Jr. has four home runs in 47 at-bats versus Wheeler.
Kinkead: I will be using online casino bonuses to play blackjack online between games.
Joe Tansey writes sports betting posts for Crossing Broad and also covers the Philadelphia Union for his Substack site, Union Soccer Blog.