Wednesday Betting Recaps
Wednesday wasn’t looking like anything exceptional from a sports betting standpoint – Major League Baseball favorites and underdogs went a ho-hum 7-7 on the day with 1 pick-’em – but then New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German threw just the 24th perfect game in MLB history late Wednesday night in Oakland, Calif.
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The Yankees were -150 road favorites at the A’s. The outcome of the bets on the game weren’t in much doubt after the Yankees took a 7-0 lead in the top of the 5th inning as the only drama left was if German would be able to complete MLB’s first perfect game in nearly 11 years as the last one was Aug. 15, 2012, by Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez in a much closer 1-0 game vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. Remarkably, that was the third perfect game that season following Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox and Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants.
German is the first Dominican-born player to throw a perfect game, and also the first to throw one after giving up 10 runs in his prior start (when he only retired 10 batters). German’s perfecto was also the 4th in Yankees franchise history, joining Don Larsen (1956 World Series Game 5), David Wells (1998) and David Cone (1999). For future-book hunch bettors, the Yankees won the World Series in all three of those years.
Some books offer odds of around 20-1 for a no-hitter to be pitched on a given day, but we’re not aware of any books that have ever offered “will there be a perfect game today?” as those are so much rarer.
But there are a couple dozen bettors who will be cashing tickets on German’s gem. Caesars/William Hill oddsmaker Eric Biggio (@ericbiggio on Twitter) Tweeted out “Preseason at Caesars/Will Hill, we offered a Perfect Game prop at 7-1 on the ‘Yes.’ Across the U.S.: 108 tickets written on the Yes at +700, 4 tickets on the No at -1100.”
Let’s get to the MLB details in our betting recaps that we post every night on Twitter @ViewFromVegas, and also the season-long betting stats, plus USFL with its championship game coming up on Saturday.
MLB: Yankees starting pitcher Domingo German threw a perfect game (27 up, 27 down) vs. the A’s late Wednesday night in Oakland/early Thursday in New York. The ViewFromVegas is the Yankees/German were -150 road favorites before German threw just the 24th perfect game in MLB history. Faves/dogs split 7-7 with Giants-Blue Jays closing pick-’em. The biggest upsets were by the Nationals (+230 at Mariners), Reds (+147 at Orioles) and Pirates (+145 vs. Giants). Road teams went 10-5. Overs led 8-6-1 with the push in SD-PIT (8).
More MLB: On the season, faves lead 691-492 with 20 games closing pick-’em. Home teams’ lead is down to 629-570 (lower than normal at 52.5%) with 4 neutral-site games. Unders’ lead has also dipped to 582-571-49 with 1 no-action.
USFL (ICYMI): Favorites/Overs are 2-0 so far in the playoffs. Including the regular season, underdogs still lead 22-20 SU overall and 27-15 ATS (64.3%). Unders still hold slim lead at 22-19-1 (53.7%).
