MLB Odds & Picks for Tigers vs. Giants: Carlos Rodon Should Dominate

MLB Odds & Picks for Tigers vs. Giants: Carlos Rodon Should Dominate article feature image
Credit:

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images. Pictured: Carlos Rodon

  • The Giants are huge home favorites in tonight's matchup with the Tigers.
  • Carlos Rodon takes the mound for San Francisco, and he'll be opposed by Detroit's Tarik Skubal.
  • Continue reading for a full breakdown of this game, including a betting pick.

Tigers vs. Giants Odds

Tigers Odds+175
Giants Odds-200
Over/Under7 (-110 / -110)
Time9:45 p.m. ET
TVMLB.TV
Odds via Caesars. Get up-to-the-minute MLB odds here.

The San Francisco Giants are down bad at the moment, so they'll be glad to see the Tigers on the schedule for a short, mid-week, two-game set.

Detroit has won just nine games in the entire month of June and enters the loser of four games in the last six.

Is this the remedy for the Giants to snap out of their funk? Let's dig into this one.

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Tigers Searching For Offense

Yes, it's been bad for the Tigers in the month of June, but just how bad has it been? We should put things in perspective.

The month is not yet over, and Detroit has already allowed a season-worst 122 runs in a month. Over the course of their 23 games, the Tigers rank second-to-last in the league with a 75 wRC+, walking in just 5.2% of plate appearances and striking out in a beefy 23.5% of them.

They're 27th in barrel rate at 5.9%, and while their hard-hit rate has at least been average, the Tigers have the ninth-highest ground ball rate in the league in June.

So, yes, I think this is going to be a struggle for the Tigers on Tuesday given the uninspiring performance we've seen at the plate. The pitching matchup, on the other hand, could be a little different.

Tarik Skubal gets the ball here for Detroit, and he's been pretty stellar in his age-25 season. The highly-touted lefty owns a 3.63 ERA with a 3.25 xERA, and while he has given up a bunch of hard-hit balls he's been able to induce grounders at a 47.9% rate.

Giants Looking to Snap Out of Funk

It's hard to say the Giants have been playing excellent ball considering the fact that they come into this one with just two wins in their last eight tries, but the numbers at the dish as of late aren't all that bad.

San Francisco is ninth with a 123 wRC+ in the last week of play with a strong .211 ISO. While the strikeout and walk numbers have been downright ugly in this period of time, the Giants can at least lay claim to a strong 8.7% barrel rate and 44.7% hard-hit rate in the last week. When they've made contact, it's worked out for them.

Speaking of working out for the Giants, how about this Carlos Rodon acquisition? The lefty has been stellar with a 2.70 ERA in 14 starts and is sporting a 31.3% strikeout rate to rank inside the top 9% of the league.

His expected ERA is 2.85, and he's only allowed more than three runs once this season. He enters here with just one runs charged to his name in the last three outings, taking him 21 innings. In that span, he's struck out 26.

Tigers-Giants Pick

I don't love taking the run line with the home team, but this is definitely a smash spot for the Giants. Rodon's high strikeout upside should give Detroit fits given their inability to make contact, and on the other side of things I'm not exactly thrilled about the prospects of Skubal, who has largely pitched to contact, running into a team which makes such great contact.

I'll lay the runs here with the Giants in a big bounce-back spot.

Pick: Giants -1.5

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About the Author
Kenny is a former member of the Baseball Writers Association of America and editor for Baseball Prospectus, and covered baseball, basketball and football for Sports Illustrated. He also specializes in tennis betting and DFS, and is a long-suffering Jets fan.

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