MLB Best Bets for Thursday, June 22 from Pickswise expert handicapper Mark Zinno

The Athletics and Guardians close out their 3-game set in Cleveland with the Guardians going for the sweep. Cleveland will start Logan Allen, who has a 1.55 ERA, 1.07 WHIP in 4 day-game starts this season and has held opposing hitters to a .213 batting average. He’ll be facing an Oakland offense that in day games is dead last in batting average (.196), OPS (.582) and wRC+ (69). Not surprisingly, Oakland has also scored the fewest runs in day games this season. The Athletics also have the 7th-highest strikeout percentage in day games in 2023.

The Athletics will start JP Sears. Despite his 4.24 ERA, he has a 1.06 WHIP on the season. Sears has received some of the lowest run support in baseball at 3.29 runs per game. However, Cleveland’s offense isn’t much better in day games this season. They’re 25th in runs scored and slugging percentage and 23rd in OPS. The Guardians also are bottom 5 in baseball in walk percentage in day games. All this adds up to a slow start from these offenses and under 4.5 runs in the first 5 innings. I won’t want to mess with the full game total as the Athletics’ bullpen is the worst in baseball and extra innings always make unders tough to play.

I will stick with this player prop for Michael Harris of the Atlanta Braves even though their game was rained out last night. It’s the final game of their series with the Phillies, who face right-hander Tijuan Walker. Harris has been on fire over the last 2 weeks. He’s batting .426 with an OPS over 1100! Eight of his 23 hits have been for extra bases and his batting average on balls in play is an insane .432 and 18 of those 23 hits came against right-handed pitchers. There were only 3 games over that 14-game stretch in which Harris didn’t get a hit, and only 2 games in which he didn’t have at least 4 plate appearances, so the opportunities should be there.

Harris has only 1 walk and just 7 strikeouts in the 56 plate appearances, so he’s putting the bat on the ball often. There is a fear with Walker that his walks could be an issue as he’s allowed only 68 hits in 77.1 innings, but let’s roll the dice going over 0.5 hit for Michael Harris tonight.

You can bet any of our MLB predictions at FanDuel Sportsbook, which has a great new-customer offer to take advantage of. If you sign up for FanDuel right now, you can get a $1,000 No Sweat First Bet! Click here to join FanDuel right now.

The Yankees will go for the sweep against the Mariners at Yankee Stadium today. New York gives the ball to Domingo German, who has been decidedly better at home this season than on the road. German has a 2.92 ERA at home and 5.91 on the road. Opponents are hitting just .172 against him in the Bronx and his WHIP is 0.83. German’s only issue is that in the 37 innings he’s pitched at home, 5 of the 23 hits allowed were home runs. The Mariners have hit the 5th-fewest home runs this season on the road, so I trust German will be effective.

Bryan Woo makes the start for Seattle. I like the stuff that this kid has. He has struck out 20 batters in just 12.1 innings pitched over his first 3 starts. I can ignore his gaudy numbers because his first 2 starts were on the road against the Rangers and Angels, teams who are top 10 in most all major offensive categories. He had a much better outing against the White Sox in Seattle last Friday, going 5.2 innings and allowing just 3 hits and 2 runs while striking out 9. The Yankees don’t hit lefties well at home. They are 2nd to last with a .209 batting average and in the bottom 5 in slugging percentage. And while the Yankees have the highest walk percentage against lefties, they also have the 7th-highest strikeout percentage. Let’s go under 4.5 runs in the first 5 innings.

You can also check out today’s MLB mega parlay

You can bet on today’s MLB action over at DraftKings Sportsbook, which has a great sign-up offer where you can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets no matter what! Click here to take advantage and claim your bonus bets right now.