Caleb Wilfinger
Major League Baseball playoff action rolls on with another day of Championship Series action on Friday, October 17. The Dodgers are set to host the Brewers in Game 4 of the NCLS, while the Mariners will host the Blue Jays in a suddenly critical Game 5 of the ALCS in Seattle. Even with only 2 games on the board on Friday, there are still a pair of bets that we like in the YRFI/NRFI market, so let’s get into our best bets for a quick and simple first-inning wager in these ALCS and NLCS matchups. You can also lock in our MLB picks for today’s matchups along with every game throughout the MLB playoffs.
YRFI/NRFI Best Bet: Brewers vs Dodgers – NRFI (-115)
Odds available at FanDuel Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -125.
Time and again, the games in this NLCS continue to be low-scoring affairs, despite the fact that the YRFI has now cashed in the last 2 games. However, I’m still going right back to the well with the NRFI on Friday in Los Angeles for what could potentially be a series-clinching game. The Dodgers just received another excellent outing from Tyler Glasnow, as he put up 5.2 innings of 1-run ball while striking out 8 batters in the process. Things won’t get any easier for the Milwaukee offense against Shohei Ohtani, who is coming off a rock solid outing against the Phillies in which he tossed 6 innings of 3-run ball while striking out 9 batters against one of the best lineups in the game. He should be in position for success against a Brewers offense that has mustered up just 3 runs all series long.
On the other side, Milwaukee has not yet announced a starter for this game, but we can expect either Jose Quintana (3.96 ERA) or right-hander Chad Patrick (3.53 ERA), with both guys being plenty rested for this matchup. Quintana would be the preferred starter from a NRFI perspective, especially given his career numbers against the top of the Dodgers order. Regardless of who takes the mound for Milwaukee, I’m expecting this low-scoring trend to continue in what should be yet another game that is dominated by pitching in this low-scoring NLCS.
Tail our experts’ 60-40 run with today’s MLB best bets for BOTH Brewers vs Dodgers and Blue Jays vs Mariners
YRFI/NRFI Best Bet: Blue Jays vs Mariners – NRFI (-120)
Odds available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing. Playable to -130.
We’ve seen runs scored in the opening frame of each of the first 3 games of this series, but that changed in Game 4, as both pitchers started strong before the offenses ultimately showed up in the innings that followed. Toronto’s offense has appeared to wake up in a big way over the last couple of games, but Seattle starter Bryce Miller should have a pretty favorable matchup on hand against a team that he’s had consistent success against – including George Springer (.222 batting average against) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (.143 batting average against).
On the other side, the Blue Jays will counter with Kevin Gausman (3.59 ERA, top 3% pitching run value), who just put forth a rock-solid performance in Toronto back in Game 1 against a Seattle lineup that appears to be in a bit of a funk at home. Given that this has been a pretty high-scoring series, I’ll back the contrarian play and look for the pitchers to start strong before the bats likely get going late on.
Check out our full Blue Jays vs Mariners preview
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