Bet MLB Saturday! Mark Eckel picks Pirates at Cardinals, Blue Jays at Rays, Braves at Mets, Diamondbacks at Padres

I went to bed Friday night and thought I really made readers of this site pretty happy.

Cincinnati was an easy winner over Detroit. St. Louis had a fight on its hands, but hung on to beat Pittsburgh. Two of the players I used — Yoenis Cespedes and Mike Moustakis — both hit home runs and when I turned in, San Diego and Arizona were scoreless in the 6th inning. I had the D’Backs and under 8 runs.

When I woke up Saturday morning I saw the final score: Padres 7, Diamondbacks 2 to ruin what could have been a really good night. Oh well let’s try again with a few of the same teams.

Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals, 2:15 p.m.

Pitchers: Trevor Williams vs. Adam Wainwright

Odds: Cardinals -153; Pirates +135

Buffalo Blue Jays at Tampa Rays, 3:10 p.m.

Pitchers: Matt Shoemaker vs. Ryan Yarborough

Odds: Rays -145; Jays +128

Atlanta Braves at New York Mets, 4:10 p.m.

Pitchers: Max Fried vs. Steven Matz

Odds: Braves -116; Mets -104

Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, 9:10 p.m.

Pitchers: Robbie Ray vs. Dinelson Lamet

Odds: Padres - 130; D’Backs +110

The Cycle

Single: I like Braves (-116) to bounce back after losing 1-0 to the Mets, Friday night. Ronald Acuna struck out three times Friday. You think that’s going to happen again? Me either. Braves for the win.

Double: I also like Tampa Bay (-145) to bounce back after losing to the nomads. Yarborough, the 6-5 lefty, had a pretty good 2019 season and should even be better this year. Those odds are short so you could parlay the Rays with the Cardinals (-153) and the always-consistent Wainwright over the Pirates.

Triple: We’re going to try he Diamondbacks (+110) over the Padres again with tough lefty Robbie Ray on the mound. Also saw a stat that the Padres are 24-49 vs. lefties.

Home Run: Take a shot Saturday with Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna (+310); Cincinnati’s Nick Castellanos (+350) and Houston’s George Springer (+235).