Kenta Maeda

Find year-round coverage of betting news and insights for all sports by visiting our Betting section and subscribing to push notifications.We're enjoying another great week of MLB best bets. We profited Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before sitting on the sidelines for Thursday's light card.We'll look to pick up where we left off and finish the week on a high note with three more plays for Friday night.Jack Flaherty: Over 17.5 outsFlaherty has done a nice job of chewing up innings for the Tigers. He's completed at least six innings in all three starts despite allowing 10 earned runs in aggregate. He's giving the Tigers length even when not at his best.Detroit will need that again Friday night. Kenta Maeda recorded only eight outs against the Rangers in their series finale, forcing the Tigers into using five different relievers in what turned out to be a taxing bullpen outing.They'll look for Flaherty to pitch relatively deep into Friday's game against the Twins. That shouldn't be a lot to ask given Minnesota's struggles at the plate.Minnesota is hitting .183 against right-handed pitchers on the season. That's comfortably the league's worst rate. The Twins have also struck out more than all but the Mariners versus righties.Flaherty should be able to navigate his way through this offense without too much trouble while recording 18-plus outs once again.Odds: -115 (playable to -130)Freddy Peralta: Over 16.5 outsThe Cardinals are a dream matchup for pitchers looking to last deep into the game. Opposing right-handed starters have recorded at least 17 outs in 11 straight games against them.Win or lose, the Cardinals haven't shown the ability to grind out high-pitch at-bats and chase starters early on. I don't see that changing against Peralta, who's pitched extremely well this season.He owns a 0.68 WHIP, 0.239 xwOBA, and has struck out nearly 40% of opposing batters. He's making it hard for hitters to even put the ball in play, let alone generate good contact against anything he throws.Peralta has gone over this total in all three games played. This is a good matchup for his fantastic play to continue.Odds: -115 (playable to -140)Brewers (-130) @ Cardinals (+110)The Brewers have a massive pitching advantage against the Cardinals. Peralta is one of the most electric arms in baseball and has posted exceptional numbers despite two of his three starts coming against top-11 teams in runs per game.The Cardinals rank 23rd in batting average, 24th in OBP, and 29th in homers while scoring fewer than four runs on average. Peralta should be able to control their very mediocre offense.I think the Brewers have a much better chance of piling up the runs against Kyle Gibson. He's sporting an ERA of well over six despite benefiting from extreme luck thus far.His xwOBA sits astronomically high at well over .400, but the opposing batting average on balls in play is just .222. That very low output will regress over time, which should lead to even more evident struggles for Gibson.The Brewers are hitting .283 against righties on the season and rank second with an average of 5.8 runs scored per contest. Gibson doesn't have the stuff to challenge and overpower the Brewers' bats, which will likely lead to a lot of trouble.Bet: Brewers (-130)Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X at @ToddCordell.Copyright © 2024 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.