MLB Betting – Giants Need Win vs. Piping Hot Cubs

Chicago Cubs (-146, 6.5 o/u) at San Francisco Giants (+136)

The Chicago Cubs (72-51, 33-25 Away) are rolling in the second half of the season, building up a 6.5-game lead in the race for the second NL Wild Card spot. Tonight, they’ll visit one of the teams they’re pulling away from, the San Francisco Giants (66-58, 35-24 Home), at AT&T Park in the first of a crucial three-game set (10:15 PM Eastern).

Chicago is arguably the hottest team in the bigs (no offense, Toronto), winning five straight and 20 of the last 24. Kris Bryant played hero last night in a makeup game with the Indians, hitting a walk-off solo shot in the ninth to give the Cubbies a 2-1 win. The walk-off tater was the second of the season for the Cubs’ super-rookie.

“It was a great pitchers’ duel,” Bryant said to the Associated Press after the game. “I thought Jon [Lester] had enough to pull it out, but sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the other team. They came through, and I knew I was going to get an at-bat there, and I made the most of it.”

The Cubs will turn to Jake Arrieta (15-6, 2.30 ERA) tonight as they travel to the Bay Area. Arrieta, who’s posted a phenomenal 7-0 record with a 1.44 ERA in his last nine road starts, is looking to become the first pitcher in the bigs to reach 16 wins.

Tonight, Arrieta will be facing a Giants team trending down. Losers of four of their last five, San Fran has fallen 6.5-games back in the NL Wild Card race. Luckily for the defending World Series champs, the Dodgers haven’t been able to take advantage, and the Giants remain just a game and a half back in the NL West standings.

The offense has been to blame of late, averaging just 2.3 runs per game on their recent six-game road trip.

“It goes through cycles,” manager Bruce Bochy told the MLB’s official website. “A week ago we were getting all the big hits we needed, and this road trip we’ve had a hard time getting them in.”

San Francisco will counter Arrieta with righty Matt Cain (2-3, 5.66 ERA), who will be making his tenth start of the season. Cain is 0-2 in his last five starts; he left his last outing with a no-decision, throwing 6.0 innings and allowing six hits and two runs against the Cardinals.

The Giants are 11 games over .500 at home and are getting good value at +136. But the Cubs are piping hot and have their best pitcher on the mound (statistically speaking). There aren’t a lot of good reasons to bet against Chicago right now.

Pick: Cubs -146.

(Photo credit: bengrey on Flickr (Original version) UCinternational (Crop) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)