At long last, the all-star break is coming to a close and it's time to lock back in for MLB regular season action.
The pregame narrative: The Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants have both dominated their respective head-to-head matchups against Friday's opponents, and I like both of them on the moneyline in this +249 parlay. For my third and final leg, I'm taking the Houston Astros as run-line underdogs.
Check out the best MLB parlay picks for Friday, July 19.
MLB parlay picks
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Parlay: Royals moneyline + Giants moneyline + Astros +1.5 (+249)
Royals moneyline (-210): The Chicago White Sox are the laughingstocks of MLB, with a .276 win percentage and a miserable -177 run differential. The grand majority of the time, fading the White Sox has been profitable.
That includes when the Sox have faced the Royals this season. KC holds a 6-1 advantage in its head-to-head matchup against Chicago, winning five of those games by multiple runs.
I don't mind Royals -1.5 as a straight wager at plus money, but I'll go with a safer route for this parlay.
Kansas City's Michael Wacha (6-6, 3.83 ERA) will face Chicago's Chris Flexen (2-8, 4.82 ERA). Against Wacha, the current White Sox lineup is just 14-for-84 (.167) with a .298 SLG.
Other picks
Giants moneyline (-177): Logan Webb may not have had a strong showing at the MLB All-Star Game, but he'll face a much less imposing lineup this weekend against the Rockies.
Webb isn't locked in as San Fran's Friday night starter, mind you, but he is likely to go despite his one inning of work in Tuesday's all-star matchup.
And if Webb is on the mound, I like his chances of keeping the Rockies in check. Colorado's current lineup has a .338 SLG against Webb in 154 at-bats, per Baseball Savant.
The Giants may roll with Blake Snell or Jordan Hicks instead, but even so, I think they're the right pick to win. They are 5-1 against the Rockies this year and 28-10 against the Rockies since 2022.
Astros +1.5 (-200): The Seattle Mariners once held a 10-game lead in the AL West. Their cushion is now just a single game, with the Astros bearing down.
Houston is just 2-5 against Seattle this year, but the Astros have covered a +1.5 run line in five of those seven matchups. They've also been impressively reliable as underdogs this season, going 18-9 ATS in that situation, per Team Rankings.
Seattle, meanwhile, is 24-39 ATS as a favourite.
Neither Seattle nor Houston has announced its Friday starter as of midday on Thursday, but FanGraphs projects Luis Castillo to get the ball for Seattle. The Astros have hit Castillo well, going 23-for-86 (.267) with a .453 SLG against him.
Picks made at 12:35 p.m. on 07/18/24.
