#969 ASA FREE PLAY ON Chicago Cubs +145 over Baltimore Orioles, Thursday at 3 PM ET - Really bad spot situationally for the O’s in this game. It’s their first game home after a 7 game road trip, it’s a one game series (make up game) vs a team from the NL and they host AL East rival Boston tomorrow. Not only that, they played yesterday in Toronto in a game that ended after 6 PM ET, then had to fly home landing later in the evening and now they have to play an early afternoon game today. Meanwhile, the Cubs played a 1:00 PM ET game in Washington and then made the 35 mile trip to Baltimore for today’s game. They were in Baltimore before the O’s game finished in Toronto last night. On top of that, the Cubs are playing solid baseball right now winning 3 straight series and they are .500 over their last 30 games which is much better than their overall record. They are hitting .260 over their last 10 games and averaging 4.5 RPG. Chicago starter Sampson has better season long numbers than Baltimore starter Watkins. Sampson has an ERA of 3.88 but his xERA and FIP are both lower which tells us he’s pitching better than his ERA might indicate. Watkins has an ERA of 4.23 yet his xERA is approaching 5.00 and his FIP is higher as well. The Orioles do have the season long edge in the bullpen but over the last 10 games they’ve fallen off a cliff with an ERA of almost 5.00 while the Cubs bullpen ERA is barely above 3.00 during that span. Solid situation to grab a decent sized underdog this afternoon.