There’s no adrenaline rush quite like sweating out a parlay and if you’ve placed a few bets at any of the biggest sportsbooks, then you know exactly how this feels. This is especially true when you’re staring down the final leg with nearly $2,000 on the line.
That was me this past Saturday, locked into a 3-leg MLB moneyline parlay with a staggering +1907 odds. I had $100 dollars staked with a potential $1,907 payout. 3 underdogs. 3 road games. 1 shot.
Sure, some call it gambling and others call it insanity. I call it baseball. It’s not always for the weak-hearted, but then again, Sunday morning feels much better.
Game one of the parlay kicked off early. The first pitch was at 3:10 p.m. ET. Kansas City was a +165 underdog against the red-hot Tigers, who were riding a 5-game win streak. Detroit sent out ace and last year’s Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, one of the best LHPs in the league this year. Of course, it felt like a bad idea, but that’s the thing about MLB — betting on value often means betting on discomfort.
Still, the Royals had Michael Wacha on the bump, and today just happened to be the day he brought his A-game.
This wasn’t a slugfest by any means. It was the kind of old-school pitching duel that barely makes highlight reels anymore. Wacha didn’t allow a hit until the 7th inning and Skubal was just as dominant. In fact, neither team got a runner past the first through 7 innings. Both starters combined for 14 innings, 12 strikeouts, and only 3 hits allowed. This is without a doubt brutal if you’re hoping for action, though it’s quite beautiful if you’re sweating a tight underdog moneyline like I was.
In the 8th, Kansas City’s Nick Loftin led off with a double. Now I’m at the edge of my seat because the Royals have the first RISP all game. After a sacrifice bunt and a pitching change, Vinnie Pasquantino, who had been bumped to 7th in the lineup because of the lefty-lefty matchup, came through with a bloop single to left. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done to get a run on the board.
1-0 and the Royals snuck in an improbable win. First leg in the books.
Around the same time I was watching the Tigers and Royals, the Brewers were getting it on against Philly. They were +154 on the road and it looked like a decent value spot. The Phillies were sending out Jesús Luzardo, who had been solid all season and probably the biggest mover of the odds. But then again, the Brewers were streaking, with 5 straight wins and a lineup that had been cooking.
What followed was pure chaos.
Rhys Hoskins, facing his old team, mashed 2 3-run bombs before the 4th inning. Chourio added a dinger of his own and a 5-RBI night. Yelich piled on with a run of his own. The Brewers ended the day with 23 total hits and 17 runs. 17 against a team that had lost only a handful of home games all season and looking like one of the best in the MLB.
On the other side of the field, Luzardo completely melted down and nobody could’ve predicted that, but I definitely welcomed it. He gave up 12 earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. You don’t see that kind of implosion every day. According to MLB stat history, only 11 other pitchers have ever done that before. That tells you how bad it was but how good it was for me.
By the time Philly manager Rob Thomson got tossed arguing a balk in the fourth, this thing was already a blowout 17-7 and the Brewers won getting me 2 legs down.
At this point, I was already doing mental accounting. The first 2 dogs had cashed and I still had $100 to win $1,907. All that stood between me and a 19x return was a Pirates win in San Diego.
Sounds easy, right? Well, not exactly. This is the Padres, another one of the hottest teams.
The Pirates were riding a 10-game losing streak against the Padres. They hadn’t beaten them in ages. San Diego had Dylan Cease on the mound — a guy who, just last July, threw a no-hitter and is still one of the best SPs in all of baseball.
The game didn’t start until 8:40 p.m. ET, which made the waiting even worse. If you've ever had 2 legs of a parlay hit and had to kill 3 hours before the last game started, you know what I’m talking about. You replay every potential outcome in your head. Should I hedge? Should I let it ride? Should I pull out early?
I did nothing but watch.
And man, did Pittsburgh come through.
Andrew McCutchen, who’s nearly 38 years old and chasing history of his own, launched a solo homer to the second deck in the 5th. That gave him 239 career home runs, just one behind Roberto Clemente on the Pirates' all-time list. More importantly, it gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead that I desperately needed them to have. Earlier in the game, they had jumped on Cease quickly. Oneil Cruz doubled, Reynolds drove him in, and the lineup just kept stringing together hits.
Bailey Falter, a name few casual fans know, pitched like a seasoned vet with 6.1 innings and just 2 hits allowed. No real stress. The bullpen did its job. The Pirates added insurance in the 7th. San Diego never got anything going and that was okay with me.
With the final score 5-0, I stared at the screen, stunned for about 10 seconds. Then it hit me.
Parlay complete. $100 turned into $1,907.
Here’s the thing. I wasn’t chasing and I definitely wasn’t being reckless. I liked all 3 of these matchups for one reason — pitching matchups and value.
Michael Wacha against a left-handed-heavy Detroit lineup? Solid. Even with Skubal on the bump, they just had to get through him and keep the Tigers bats cool until then.
The Brewers, swinging hot bats, facing a pitcher due for regression? That was worth the shot in my book.
And the Pirates? Yeah, it was one of the riskier bets I've made. But Falter had been solid all month. Dylan Cease had been scuffling. It felt like a good time to jump on top of this.
Each line had value on its own, but when you put them together, you get +1907.
It’s rare for 3 dogs to win outright, especially all on the road. But sometimes, the numbers line up and the ball bounces your way.
Parlays like this aren’t something I do every day. In fact, most of the time, they don’t hit. But when they do, it’s a thrill to chase.
What made this one special was that none of the games were flukes. No walk-off bloop hits, no ninth-inning collapses. Each team earned the win by playing a full 9 innings of ball. The Royals won a chess match, the Brewers lit fireworks and the Pirates played clean baseball and finally snapped a brutal losing streak.
I’ve had losing days, losing weeks, and cold streaks that make you question the entire process. But every once in a while, a Saturday afternoon like this one comes along and reminds you why we grind.
Would I bet a +1900 parlay again? Without a doubt. Will it win? Probably not. But that’s baseball.