The Reds just got back to Cincinnati off a successful six-game road trip where they went 5-1. They had Thursday off, and they met the Tigers and Framber Valdez today. Rain is expected today with temperatures at 74° and the wind blowing out to left field at 9 mph. Valdez has been excellent in his last two starts, while Andrew Abbott is looking for last year's groove. Buy low, sell high. The bet is on Abbott finding himself aided by the best bullpen in baseball.

Seems a fair price as the Reds ... you know listening (guess reading) in Discord everyone likes underdogs. And I think Cincy +115 is a solid shot and probably a popular play Friday. But this is a quite cheap +1.5 price so why not take a one-run loss out of the equation? The Reds are 6-0 in one-run games, though. I miss the no-man-on-second days when a +1.5 ticket was nearly an auto-cash in extras. Definitely not that now. The Tigers played Thursday and the Reds didn't. So there's a bullpen advantage. We are getting this cheap because Reds starter Andrew Abbott has not been very good. But he was terrific his first three seasons and will see a tired Tigers bunch.