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MLB Monday best bets: Giants to rebound in Colorado

Kelsey Grant / Getty Images Sport / Getty

As is often the case on Mondays, we have a pretty quiet night of baseball ahead as only seven games are scheduled for the evening slate.

Let's take a look at the best way to attack it.

Cubs (+120) @ Marlins (-140)

The Miami Marlins are limping into this game, having won just three of 10 contests and five of the last 20.

Although the Chicago Cubs have only won seven of their last 20 games, I see value in backing them Monday evening - at least in the first half of the contest.

Edward Cabrera, who's scheduled to take the mound for the Marlins, appears to be hitting a bit of a rough patch. Cabrera has conceded 12 runs over the last 21 2/3 innings, and his underlying numbers over the past month are trending in the wrong direction.

The 24-year-old has posted a 5.64 FIP during that stretch, which is worse than all but Chad Kuhl and Tyler Alexander among Monday's projected starters.

Cabrera has walked nearly 12% of opposing batters while allowing a lot of fly balls and benefitting greatly from luck. His BABIP sits at .188 over the last 30 days, which is well below the expected norm of .275.

While the Cubs are hardly a lethal offense, they're not the Marlins.

Chicago sits 23rd in wOBA, 19th in ISO, and 13th in fly-ball ratę against righties in September. The Cubs should be able to plate some runs against Cabrera, which would put them well on their way to an F5 victory given the state of Miami's offense.

The Marlins rank dead last with a .254 wOBA against lefties since the beginning of August. They've struck out a whopping 28.5% of the time, which is more than all but the Pittsburgh Pirates during that stretch.

With a better offense taking on a struggling pitcher, and the comfort of a push in the event of a tie, backing the Cubs to lead through five is my favorite way to attack this game.

Bet: Cubs F5 ML (+110)

Giants (-125) @ Rockies (+105)

The San Francisco Giants aren't in the best of form heading into this game, having dropped six of 10 and three in a row.

Luckily, they have a date with Chad Kuhl, an elixir that can cure all. The Colorado Rockies righty has pitched miserably of late, posting a 6.20 ERA and 5.91 FIP over the past month.

Kuhl's biggest problem has been an inability to keep the ball inside the park. Pitching at Coors Field is unlikely to help mitigate that issue.

The Giants don't have a great offense, but that hasn't stopped them from teeing off against Kuhl in previous meetings. They scored five runs in each game against Kuhl this season, with the veteran failing to get through even eight innings combined.

If we include last season's appearance as well, Kuhl has conceded 13 runs - and four homers - through 11 innings of work against this Giants team.

I think this is a great bounce-back spot for San Francisco and its offense. On the flip side, Jakob Junis should be able to hang in and hold his own.

Over the past four weeks, the Rockies rank dead last in wOBA against right-handed pitchers. They've also posted the league's highest ground-ball rate during that time.

Junis, a solid ground-ball pitcher, will no doubt be looking to attack the Rockies where they struggle most.

Back the Giants for a road win at a very reasonable price.

Bet: Giants (-125)

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.

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