When it comes to overs, it ain't over until it's over

We have some high-profile MLB games to enjoy on this Friday evening, and we're looking at runs scored to lead the way.

Betting the over for Yankees-Cardinals — No team has scored more runs over the last 30 days than the New York Yankees. The Yanks will draw Dakota Hudson tonight as this St. Louis-New York series gets going. New York owns the fifth-highest OBP against RHP over the past month, and its wRC+, a metric to quantify a team's offensive quality, is tops in the league against righties. Hudson has had issues of late, coming into this one with a 4.10 ERA that has continued to rise over the past two months. While we're looking to New York to power the scoring here, St. Louis should be able to help out the cause. The Cardinals are hitting lefties extremely well, owning the third-highest wRC+ in the past 30 days and the second-highest OBP. Nestor Cortes may be in for a tough go; St. Louis isn't striking out much against lefties either.
 
Oddschecker Best Odds: Over 8.5 runs (-115 BetMGM)

Banking on Padres-Dodgers bringing the fireworks — There should be some fun weekend games between two of the NL's best, with the Dodgers hosting the Padres for a three-game series. Similarly to the Yankees-Cardinals game, both of these offenses rank in the top 10 for both OBP and wRC+ against the handedness of the opposing starters. That will be Tony Gonsolin for Los Angeles and Sean Manaea for San Diego. Manaea allowed six runs when he last drew the Dodgers, and Gonsolin has been struggling of late. After never allowing more than 2 runs in his first 16 starts, Gonsolin has surrendered 3+ earned runs in each of his last three games. The weather suggests a boost to homers is coming (+19% projected on Ballpark Pal), and both of these offenses should be able to capitalize. Bring on the runs! We're still waiting for Juan Soto's first HR as a Padre. How about tonight at +320?

Oddschecker Best Odds: Over 8.5 runs (-110 FanDuel)

In other news ...

You can bet on which state the World Series winner comes from — The betting markets that open up as sports gambling continues its legalization around the country astound us. DraftKings and Caesars are both letting us bet on which state the World Series winner comes from. The two favorites on DK are New York at +225 and California at +245. There is a conceivable argument that you could place a bet on both states, giving you a great opportunity to land some profit in October. You'll then be rooting on the Yankees, Mets, Padres and Dodgers to bring home a championship, all of which are inside the top seven for best odds to win it all. We recommend exploring this market; it opens up some hedging opportunities as well once the postseason gets going and the field starts to dwindle.

Finding value bets in who will make the NFL playoffs — While the NFL regular season is over a month away, we're still thinking about betting on football every day. Playoff odds are available for all 32 teams, and a few at reasonable odds catch our eye. The Titans are -110 to make the playoffs, a feat they have accomplished in three straight seasons. They have the reigning Coach of the Year, and Derrick Henry isn't going anywhere. For a bit of juice, how about the Detroit Lions at +410? We may soon fall in love with this Detroit team, the star of HBO's "Hard Knocks," which starts next week. We've mentioned many times how open the NFC is for teams to slip in the playoffs, and the Lions should be better than they were in 2021.

Calgary Flames lock up newly acquired Jonathan Huberdeau — Calgary said goodbye to a few massive contributors this offseason in Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk. The Flames hope that Jonathan Huberdeau, fresh off a career-high 115-point season, will lead them in this next phase. Huberdeau was inked yesterday to an eight-year, $84 million contract. Huberdeau is +3500 to win the Hart Trophy this coming season.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll