Unlikely Pairing: Skenes and Yamamoto – A Bet You Can't Miss

Tonight, as the clock strikes 10:10 – a time where most folks are halfway to dreamland or nodding off during a late-night program – there’s an intriguing match-up between the perennial underdogs Pittsburgh Pirates and the juggernauts from Los Angeles, the Dodgers. But let’s not get too caught up in the score predictions and stat breakdowns; let’s dive into the real meat and potatoes here – what in baseball’s blue heaven are the Pittsburgh Pirates going to do with their budding ace and enigma, Paul Skenes?

The art of line-making, oh, it’s like trying to forecast the weather by just looking at the color of the sky. It’s an enigmatic puzzle, wrapped in a Rubik’s Cube, and coated in mystery – or so they say. But here’s a thought: why do we make it so complicated? I’ve called the shots in my men’s league games, and you realize that predicting outcomes isn’t rocket science.

So, here we stand on the precipice of a pitching duel for the ages, with one team, the Dodgers, sporting a roster so loaded they could start a baseball league of their own, and the Pirates, bless their hearts, who are probably just happy to get out of spring training with a full roster.

You know, if line-making was as straightforward as predicting my wife’s reaction to me spending another hundred bucks on that vintage baseball glove, we’d all be bookmakers by now. But with Skenes, whose stats twinkle like stars trying to mask their brilliance against the alluring darkness of LA’s batting line-up, what are we supposed to do? And what about the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto? His current form suggests he could throw a no-hitter in his sleep.

Hmm… So, should you back the Pirates’ total to go under against this powerhouse team where every player seems to be in mid-season form? You bet. Here’s to hoping tonight’s game wraps up without either team invoking the wrath of the runs.

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Pirates vs. Dodgers, 10:10 ET

Line making always fascinates me. I don’t think it is quite as complex as everyone makes it out to be and I’ll give you a few examples. One of them is that many say the books are trying to get equal money on both sides of a bet and just take the profit. I don’t really think that’s the case because a lot of money would be left out there, and billionaires don’t really invest in leaving money on the table. The other thing is that I make lines for my men’s league games and out of eight teams, there really aren’t too many huge trends for teams. With that said, how do you make a line for a pitching phenom facing another pitching phenom with one bad team, the Pirates, and one great team, the Dodgers? 

I’m extremely curious, more so than even about line making, about how the Pirates plan to build around Paul Skenes. This isn’t the first time the club has had a superstar in their rotation. They had Gerrit Cole and let him walk. They also never really fielded a winning team around Cole. They’ve had some decent players and some guys that never lived up to the hype, but so has every other team. You now have a generational talent and you’re either going to let him walk after his rookie contract, or you need to invest in the team and see what they can do. It will be in interesting. Skenes has been as good as advertised since joining the big league club. He is 2-2 this season with a 2.87 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP. He also has 30 strikeouts in 31.1 innings. Dodgers hitters have been okay against Skenes, holding a .250 average against him. Shohei Ohtani has homered off of him.

The Dodgers are not a team that you need to worry about building a competent roster. They have one of the best rosters in baseball history at this point. Maybe that is an exaggeration, but maybe it isn’t. We will see when this season is completed just how good they can be. The biggest concern for them is the health of their team. They also aren’t great on the road, but that can be fixed relatively easily over the course of the season – at least I think it can. One of their big acquisitions from last year starts tonight. Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the hill, and he wasn’t quite great last year, but was very good. He is 3-1 with a 0.93 ERA this season and a 0.86 WHIP. Even better, he has 38 strikeouts in 29 innings. He is unhittable right now. Combine that with the Pirates having never faced him and this could be a rough offensive night. 

I don’t always go through the process of picking a line for games. At this point, I’ve done this long enough where I feel like I can just look at a line and decide that something is correct or off. Things tend to stand out to me. With this game, there is only one thing I can confidently back – it is the Pirates under their team total. I think the whole game goes under, but if any team can get to Skenes, it is the Dodgers. Back the Pirates team total under. 

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