The Cincinnati Reds will face the San Francisco Giants in the first of three games starting Friday night inside Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Reds will toss out the first pitch of the opener at 7:10 p.m.
Bookmaker has installed the Reds at 115 on the ML.
The Reds have shown a lot of fight this season, and many oddsmakers did not really see this team competing at all. Even though they are a couple of games under .500 on the season, they have given their fanbase a glimpse of hope. They play hard, and they have some nice young talent on their team, too.
On offense, the Reds are paced by rising star 25-year-old Elly De La Cruz, who has cracked a career-high 18 home runs and has stolen a team and career-high 55 bases. The Reds love to play small ball when he gets on base because every time he is a threat to turn a base hit into a double or a triple, he can score from first on a hit. He is that fast and dangerous on the bases that opponents know to watch for him.
He is a player the Reds franchise will build around. The Reds are hitting .230 with 156 stolen bases on the season. They will hand the ball over to Andrew Abbot, who sports a mark of 9-7 to go along with his 3.38 ERA. He has fanned 89 in 117 innings of work.
The Giants have the unlikely task of playing in one of the most stacked divisions in baseball-the NL West. They are not going to catch the front-running Los Angeles Dodgers, who appear to be running away with the division and, in the process, trying to stamp themselves as the team to beat in the National League.
The Giants have been on a nice little tear, having won seven out of their last 11 games and they now sit just 4 1/2 games back of the NL Wild Card. They are at least trying to set themselves up for a run come September and try to lock down one of the two spots. They have an inconsistent offense, but their pitching has bailed them out over the last two or so weeks. They allowed seven runs in their last five games (4-1), which is something they can build upon.
They will give the ball to Kyle Harrison, who has a record of 6-4 and an ERA of 3.69.
The Reds are 2-3 in their last five games and 2-3 in their last five games against the spread. They are also 31-21 in their roadgames against the number too. The ttotals has gone over in one out of their last five games. The Giants are 4-1 in their last five games and 2-3 in their last five games against the spread too. They are a solid 23-31 in their road games against the spread and the totals have gone over in one out of their last five games.
