The White Sox continue their march toward a division championship with a stop in Minneapolis for a three-game series with the Twins beginning Monday night. Lucas Giolito gets the call for Chicago here against “opener” Beau Burrows for Minnesota. How are we playing this game with our free baseball betting pick?
MLB Betting Odds
Monday’s baseball betting lines opened the ChiSox are around -190 over the Twinkies, with an over/under of 9.5 runs. Both figures were holding steady in the early betting action.
Chicago could also be found at around -125, giving the run and a half on the run line.
White Sox-Twins MLB Betting Preview
Chicago just swept three games from the Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend by scores of 8-6, 4-0, and Sunday 9-3. Just before that, the White Sox lost two of three games to Kansas City, but just before that, they took two of three from Cleveland. So the ChiSox are 6-3 over their last nine games.
At 66-46 overall, Chicago leads the AL Central by 10.5 games over the second-place Indians, and it’s only two games behind Tampa Bay in the battle for the best record in the American League.
Minnesota, meanwhile, just took three out of four games from the Astros in Houston over the weekend, taking Sunday’s series finale 7-5. Just before that, the Twins split two games with Cincinnati, while just before that, they dropped two of three to St. Louis. So Minnesota is 5-3 over its last eight games.
But at 48-64 overall, the Twins are just playing out the string on a lost season.
The White Sox lead the soon-to-be-completed season series with Minnesota 12 games to four.
Monday’s Pitching Match-Up
Rookie Burrows will be making his first career MLB start Monday to go along with four appearances this season in relief. He made three appearances with Detroit earlier this season, gave up eight runs in six innings of work, got dumped, then picked up by Minnesota. In his only appearance for his new team so far, eight days ago, he gave up three runs and three hits, including a home run, through just two innings against the Cardinals.
Burrows, a former first-round pick by the Tigers, has shown some promise in the Lower Levels, going 32-27 with a 3.68 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP in parts of six seasons in the Minors.
Over two career appearances against the White Sox, one last year and one in June of this season, Burrows allowed four runs through 2 2/3 innings.
Giolito, by our strict standards, is 9/22 on quality starts this year. Last Wednesday, he gave up six runs and eight hits, including three homers, through just four frames of a 9-1 Chicago loss to the Royals. But over his four starts before that, he held opponents to five runs and 19 hits through 26 1/3 innings, with eight walks against 27 strikeouts.
On the season, the White Sox are only 10-12 with Giolito, but that mark is at least three games worse than it should be.
Over two starts already this season against Minnesota, Giolito allowed four runs and eight hits through 14 innings. Chicago won both those games.
Splits With the Sticks
The White Sox are batting .248 against right-handed pitching this season, with a .334 team OBP and a .412 team slugging percentage.
The Twins are slashing .242/.319/.429 against right-handed pitching, but they also recently traded away a big bat in Nelson Cruz.
The Bullpens
The Chicago bullpen owns a 4.03 ERA this season, along with a 1.28 WHIP and a 3.14 K/BB ratio.
The Minnesota pen owns a 4.89 ERA, a 1.36 WHIP, and a 2.60 K/BB ratio.
MLB Betting Trends
- The White Sox are 27-26 on the road this season.
- The Twins are 24-30 at home.
- The White Sox are 46-35 against right-handed starters this season.
- The Twins are 36-38 against right-handed starters.
- The White Sox are 21-18 as favorites on the road against the run line this season.
Totals Report
Unders are 55-51 in White Sox games this season.
Overs are 64-41 in Twins games.
Overs are 30-22 in games played at Target Field.
Overs are 10-5 in White Sox-Twins games this season.
