Wednesday MLB Betting Picks and College Football Talk for August 30 - Ride the Line Ep. #50

A new episode of Ride the Line with Grant Mitchell and Tanner Kern is now live on all WSN platforms!

Wednesday MLB Betting Picks

The boys were upfront that Wednesday was a tough day to find standout picks due to the series at a play and a number of pitching changes, but they both came prepared with their three best bets of the day.

Ironically, both Grant and Tanner are looking to the Philadelphia Phillies to cover -1.5 against the Los Angeles Angels. The Phillies have won and covered in both games in the series thus far and have an easy road to making it three of three by facing Reid Detmers, who has an ERA of 8.68 in August.

The Angels have clearly given up hope on their season as they just waived an assortment of players, including a couple of starters and people they traded for at the deadline. The Phillies, meanwhile, are alive and well and rank second in scoring and sixth in bullpen ERA over the last 30 days. The Angels rank 24th and third-worst in those categories over the same period.

Tanner’s second pick is the NRFI in the San Francisco Giants-Cincinnati Reds matchup. The Giants have the benefit of starting Logan Webb, who has been one of the most consistent pitchers in the league and has a 3.51 ERA that drops to 2.48 at home. The Reds will start Hunter Greene, and although he has been torched in his last couple of outings, he has a very high K/9 rate that should help bail him out if he gets in trouble early.

The Reds have gone ice-cold at the plate over the last two weeks and are hitting just .207 during that span. The Giants recently broke out of their slump but are still from an offensive powerhouse and helped cash the NRFI yesterday.

More MLB Bets 

Grant’s second pick is the Milwaukee Brewers moneyline against the Chicago Cubs. The Cubbies won 1-0 yesterday to curtail the Brew Crew’s nine-game win streak, but Grant thinks that with a renewed offensive spirit and a strong bullpen, they will be able to get back on track.

Brandon Woodruff will lead the effort from the mound having posted a 2.65 ERA and .88 WHIP in limited innings this season. He also has a 3.14 career ERA against a Chicago team that he has lots of familiarity with. Kyle Hendricks will start for the Cubs, and although he has a 3.80 for the year, he’s at 5.00 in August.

Tanner’s final pick is another NRFI, this one in the Minnesota Twins-Cleveland Guardians game. The Twins score a lot of runs but rely heavily on the home run ball to do so, and Guardians starter Tanner Bibee does a nice job keeping the runs and hits down. The Guardians, meanwhile, have a very poor offense and are facing a pitcher in Sonny Gray who has only given up six homers all year.

Even in Monday’s game which ended 10-6 and had 10 total runs through two innings, the NRFI held up. These offenses are too inconsistent and the pitchers are too strong for Tanner to ignore the NRFI as a great pick.

The final pick of the show comes courtesy of Grant and is the Washington Nationals +1.5 against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Nats are 26-17 on the moneyline since the All-Star break and have covered in 11 of their last 14 outings, whereas the Blue Jays have covered just six times in their last 19 (less than once every three games).

The main concern for Nationals will be that Patrick Corbin is getting the start—but despite having a 4.70 season ERA and 1.47 WHIP, he’s managed a 2.70 ERA in four starts this month. Toronto’s Chris Bassitt, meanwhile, has a 4.00 ERA for the year and has been right at that mark in August while giving up four earned runs in two of his last three starts.

Check back on Friday for another episode of Ride the Line with more MLB and College Football betting picks!