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Posted at 12:15 PM EST. 

7:05 PM EST. From the very beginning and up to the mid or late 80’s, baseball teams used to schedule Sunday doubleheaders all the time. Each team routinely scheduled a half dozen or more throughout the season. One could buy one ticket and watch two games and it would last between five and six hours. Nowadays, DH’s are forced when a rainout occurs. Teams now play two games in one day but there is a two-to three hour break in between games to allow the first group of fans to leave and the second group to arrive. Teams’ usually get to the park 2½ to three hours before game time. Thus, a game that starts at 1:00 PM means the players will arrive at 10 or 10:30 AM. The second game will end at 10:30 PM or later, which means for players, it’s a 12-hour day of baseball. Throw in the sitting around in between games and the sitting around the previous day when waiting out a rain delay and the result is a mentally and physically drained team the day after a DH. For the Rockies today, it also means a day of traveling.

We’re always looking for strong situational plays in all sports and this has to be considered one of them. From this day forward, this angle will be applied often and we’re going to put it to the test here. This game is evenly priced to the option to bet the Reds at a pick-em or thereabouts is available but we’ll go for the kill in this hitter’s park.

Starting for the Reds will be 26-year-old Lisalverto Bonilla, who once was a promising, raw prospect early in his career in the Phillies and Rangers organizations. After pitching in the majors for 20.2 innings with Texas in 2014, Bonilla had to undergo Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss the entire 2015 campaign. The Reds obtained him off waivers in February 2017. Bonilla has always impressed with his pure stuff. He can fire his fastball in the 94-96 mph range and complements it with a slider and very good change-up. His off-speed pitch borders on plus status. He has thrown quality strikes throughout his career and gets swings and misses with his power arsenal. He had 118 K’s and 40 BB’s in 111 innings, working as both a starter and reliever in both Double-A and Triple-A in 2016. He got his feet last week in San Fran with a decent eight-inning, six hit, three runs performance and he’ll be facing what figures to be a fatigued opponent.

Tyler Anderson is a pitcher we’re keeping a close eye on because he’s a lot better than his surface stats suggest. We’ll get into his profile when the time is right but this isn’t that time, as this wager is a fade against a situation.

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