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The Major League Baseball season stretches from late March and can go into November. Over that time, all 30 teams will place at least 162 games, and with that, there are ample betting opportunities.
A popular betting market for baseball is “NRFI” (no runs in the first inning) bets, and here at WSN, we offer you a daily resource for making these wagers.
See our coverage of today's best NRFI bets, September 25th.
Below, we’ll cover these bets in more detail, strategies for making them, how to make them, and more.
Here's what we'll cover:
NRFI, also known as “No Run First Inning” is a wager in which you’ll simply be picking whether or not a run will be scored in the first inning or not. These are an example of a micro-bet in that you’ll receive the results rather quickly as it only covers the first inning.
As with any bet, the starting pitchers in an MLB game are paramount to determining which way to bet. For an NRFI bet, we’re looking for a scoreless first inning. So, suppose two pitchers are going up against one another with a low ERA, high strikeout potential, or those that do well against certain hitters that lead off the lineup. In that case, this can be pretty helpful in making your NRFI betting decisions. A great stat for helping determine the strength of a starting pitcher in this context is their home run allowed rate.
While rain delays often happen in baseball, there are limits to which the MLB will allow games to be played, despite the inclement weather. Other than that, if a game has the wind blowing into the stadium with force, this could help keep balls from traveling for a home run.
When deciding whether or not to make an NRFI bet, it’s essential to check out the top portion of each lineup. With this bet going for no runs, you’d like to see pitchers limit the first inning to just three batters. Research the batters you project will be starting things off and see if they have the potential to record an out or not based on the pitching matchup.
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To start off the 2023 season, numerous pitchers have performed well in the context of an NRFI bet. At the time of this writing, more than 30 pitchers have an NRFI rate of 100% through the first 10 games of the season. One thing to monitor as the season progresses is the individual teams. The offensive prowess of each team plays a big deal in addition to the starting pitcher.To name some players, Yu Darvish, Jonathan Gray, Marcus Stroman, Anthony DeSclafani, and more are 2-0 in NRFI situations.
“NRFI” is an acronym for “No Runs First Inning.” With this bet, you’ll be projecting whether or not a run is scored in the first inning or not—that’s it. This is considered a micro-prop bet as you’ll receive the results so quickly into the game.
At the time of this writing, the best NRFI teams are the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins, with a 70% NRFI rate. That said, across the league, the average percentage, again, through 9-11 games, depending on the team, is 46%. The New York Yankees rank last at 2-8 on the season.
After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Journalism, Richard Janvrin has been covering iGaming and sports betting since December 2018. Richard has covered betting at Bleacher Report, Gambling.com, The Game Day, Forbes, and more.
More info on Richard Janvrin
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