Milwaukee Brewers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Prediction: Should We Fade The Lefty Eric Lauer?
Milwaukee Brewers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Prediction: Should We Fade The Lefty Eric Lauer?
Eric Lauer is an interesting talent. He has his moments where he looks outstanding but other outings where he gets shelled. Overall I would say he’s solid but tonight doesn’t seem like a strikeout night for him. I think he should go 5-6 innings and give up only 1-2 runs but I see a lot of outs to contact. Pittsburgh has been a tough team to strike out as of late and has been particularly great against left-handed pitching. , all four left-handed starting pitchers who have faced Pittsburgh thus far have failed to reach 6 strikeouts.
Click Here for Brewers vs Pirates Odds
Eric Lauer Under 5.5 K’s (-130) (Bet $130 to win $100)
*Odds Available at Caesars at Time of Publishing*
But I don’t want to just call Lauer a lefty and not give it any context. Lauer has actually struggled striking out Pirates in general lately. Lauer has failed to strikeout 6 or more Pirates in 7 of 8 games against them lifetime. In those games, he has only averaged 3.75 strikeouts per game and has only even exceeded 5 once, let alone 6. Pittsburgh will be enjoying getting Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes who both crush left-handed pitching. Lauer only has 9 strikeouts in 46 plate appearances by these Pirates bats. If he’s not getting strikeouts in even 20% of his at-bats we can’t expect him to get 6+ tonight.
Betting unders has never been my style but with the shortened Spring Training and the way pitchers have looked thus far I know it has value. If he gets destroyed this a sweat-free cash but the luxury of this bet is that he can genuinely have a good outing and still only strikeout 4-5 batters and get plenty of outs via fly outs or slow rollers. Lauer last year fell short of one K per inning, I don’t see him going 6 full innings tonight and even if he does this could still cash with the Pirates being a negative matchup for him.