The Rockies and Angels may be looking toward next season, but there's still plenty to love about how both these teams have hit over the course of the past month.
Now, they're on a collision course in L.A. on Tuesday, as Cal Quantrill, a surprise success story in Colorado, takes on the struggling Griffin Canning for Los Angeles.
Can either one of these pitchers find success in a hitter's park, or should we target the bats on Tuesday?
Let's search for a winning Rockies vs. Angels same-game parlay.
Remember to bet responsibly — this is a long shot for a reason.
Rockies vs Angels Parlay Picks: SGP Odds
- Cal Quantrill Under 4.5 Strikeouts (-136)
- Logan O'Hoppe 2+ Total Bases (+105)
- Ezequiel Tovar 2+ Total Bases (-120)
Parlay Odds: +518 (FanDuel)
Cal Quantrill
Under 4.5 Strikeouts (-136)
The first part of the equation here will be taking the under on Cal Quantrill's strikeouts.
It's not as if I am a doubter of Quantrill here — he's done very well to earn my trust after I threw him to the wolves a season ago — but strikeouts aren't his game.
He's punched out just 17.8% of the batters he's seen and has tailored his game to ground balls in an effort to get outs on contact.
The Angels are striking out at just a 21.4% clip this month, which is the 10th-best rate in the game. For the season, that's the 16th-best mark.
This isn't a picture-perfect matchup for punchies, and Quantrill has gone under this number in three of his last four outings.
He came through with five punchouts against the Giants — a team that strikes out much more than L.A. — and his sporadic strikeout performances have all come against free-swinging teams.
I expect the Angels to make a bunch of contact here and sneak under five strikeouts against Quantrill.
Logan O'Hoppe
2+ Total Bases (+105)
One man who should be in a dream spot here is Logan O'Hoppe. The Angels' backstop is hitting a solid .299 against ground-ball pitchers like Quantrill this season.
Best of all, with a .552 slugging percentage in this split, nearly half of his 20 hits against ground-ball pitchers have gone for extra bases.
O'Hammered is in the midst of a hot stretch in which he's hit .300 over the past eight games. While he hasn't found an extra-base hit over this span, he continues to hit the ball hard and did go for multiple hits with at least one in six of those contests.
He's been far better against righties this year with a .300 average and .479 slugging percentage compared to .191 and .365 in the reverse split.
With the matchup advantage against a ground-baller, O'Hoppe should be a good bet on Tuesday.
Ezequiel Tovar
2+ Total Bases (-120)
Finally, we'll go with the free-swinging Ezequiel Tovar to rack up a couple of total bases and take us home.
Tovar will draw the contact-oriented Canning, who has given up a ton of fly balls — over seven percentage points higher than the league average.
Tovar has totaled a whopping 90 total bases against fly-ballers, hitting .283 and slugging .481 in the split. Against "finesse" pitchers like Canning, as classified by Baseball Reference, he's slashing .328/.352/.618.
Canning will pound the strike zone here, which will work out very well for Tovar, who's never seen a pitch he doesn't like. His recent form should make him even more attractive here, considering he's hit .444 over the last 10 games with four doubles and five home runs to make up nine of his 20 hits.
With strong splits against fly-ball and finesse arms to go along with a near-50 point gap in average and slugging versus right-handers, he should be the man to back here against Canning.
