MLB Over/Under Best Bet: Atlanta Braves vs. Tampa Bay Rays, April 13

Well, there were really some nerve-wracking moments in yesterday’s pirates red underneath, but thankfully the effort keeps true and continues this strong start to the season. Never get content.

To end the Major League campaign’s third week, we will go to George M. Steinbrenner Field for the first time. This is where Tampa Bay Rays plays their home games this year (and then?) After the wreck Tropicana field has endured last fall in the hands of Hurricane Milton and they will put on Atlanta Braves today in the series finale after both clubs shared the first two matches.

Just as with athletics playing in a new ball park in Sacramento, you should want to take a wait-and-see strategy to note how these new arenas play out, at least in the beginning. After all, this is a spring training stadium – which belongs to the New York Yankees – we are dealing with and it is curious to observe how the games play out during regular seasonal months in the typically hot Florida Air.

Remember that Rays and Miami Marlin’s two are hosted indoors on their normal home fields, so the typically warmer Florida Air is never really a factor within one season – until now.

Tampa Bay has so far had 11 home games and these competitions produced a total of 84 runs together – or an average of 7.6 runs per match. So nothing really unusual, at least until we reach the warmer summer part of the slate.

It hopefully means at the moment that we can still only focus on deciphering the pitching match to get a duke on the game record. And there is a good one on the crane on Sunday afternoon.

Reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale begins for Braves and it is something that should always stand out immediately. Although we had a surprisingly 6.75 era through their first three starts, we know that the eight o’clock All Star is much better than that and will start to get down that number very soon. Probably today with an opponent on the other side he has had an exceptional success against.

In 25 career games (23 starts) before the rays, sales are 11-7 with a 3.04 and 1.06 Whip. More impressive, he is knocked out 206 strokes in these excursions and extends over 148 rounds. It is a strike frequency of 12.5 k/9.

Something important that can help 6-foot-6 Southpaw to construct another such performance is that Tampa Bay has struggled heavily when taking on a left-wing pitcher. They are one of nine teams in baseball that hit under the Mendoza line (.200) against the left and the rays .586 Ops as a team in this section ranks them 24th baseball.

Tampa’s range presents a favorable matchup for sale to start normalizing its statistics.

However, the more difficult part of this venture is figures that come from the other starter, Joe Boyle. The hard -wing right hand makes its season (and team) debut.

Boyle came from athletics during the off -season and showed some valuable potential earlier. He has the ability to gather the strikes – but with it comes some fuzzy command.

Overall, however, I buy the 25-year-old as someone who can put a lot of it and establish themselves at the large league level. Boyle’s talents were really shown through spring training, where he created a 3.52 era over 15 1/3 rounds while he noted 21 KS.

One of these excursions came with Atlanta that opposed him – and it was with their “A” bathing order in action as well. Boyle did quite well and retired the first six hits he met before allowing pairs of runs with two outs in his final inning. He shook all four Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna to a combined 1-for-8 with four strikes in the day.

Atlanta is second from the bottom in points (46) this year, and although they will probably not remain rooted down there, it is still something to lean on when it comes to avoiding a crooked output. If Boyle can only contribute something satisfactory as he can, this will be in good hands during the effort.

Choose: Under 8.5 (-118, Fanduel)

2025 MLB Betting Record: 10-6-1, +3.23 Units

Over/below: 9-4-1

Props: 1-1

MLS: 0-1

Yesterday’s results: Pirates-Reds below 8.5 (Win)

Each bet rated as if it would win a unit unless otherwise stated.

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