Golf Heads to Scotland, Clark and Bueckers in Action on the Court

Happy Wednesday everyone! Or as I consistently wake my kid up with “Happy Hump Day!” Lots of day action today with tennis, WNBA, soccer and day baseball, so we are going to get this out as soon as we can.

We are all rooting for Gator Ben Shelton to upset No. 1 Skinner today, but that’s already started. Let’s get on with the rest of the action that you can bet on.

Texas Rangers (-132 Kumar Rocker) at Los Angeles Angels ( +108, Kyle Hendricks)

I don't generally make a habit of betting on past-their-prime soft-tossing pitchers, but here we are. Kyle Hendricks has been the definition of ordinary this season (5-6 record with a 4.68 ERA and 1.27 WHIP) and that's likely to continue for the remainder of the season for the 35-year old, but that doesn't exclude him from cashing prop tickets tonight.

The righty faces a Rangers team that has struggled to produce consistently since hanging 16 runs on the Twins almost a month ago. For the season, Texas ranks 24th in ground ball rate, as they tend to sell out to generate launch angle. That's not rare in today's game, but it's suboptimal for this matchup.

Against similarly motivated offenses, Hendricks has been the best version of himself.

In split: 24.2 innings with a 2.19 ERA and 6.9 hits allowed per nine innings
Out of split: 67.2 innings with a 5.59 ERA and 10.0 hits allowed per nine innings

The Rangers also have a tendency to force the issue (sixth highest chase rate) and with Hendricks showcasing some underlying deception (pacing for his highest called strike rate since 2018 with the Cubs), he profiles as a nice efficient play in this spot.

After a shaky April, Hendricks has completed six full innings in half of his starts and given the predictive metrics in his favor heading into this showdown, I like his chances of getting to that point again. Kumar Rocker has impressed of late (six earned runs allowed over his past four starts), so I'd rather isolate the Hendricks outs prop instead of his Angels for the game.

Pick: Hendricks over 17.5 outs (+100)