MLB Thursday best bets: Bibee to stay hot vs. White Sox

We cleaned up on the diamond Wednesday night, picking up three sweat-free wins en route to a perfect card.

Our weekly record now sits at 6-2 as we head into Thursday's small slate. Let's take a look at a couple of plays that stand out as we try and keep the ball rolling.

Angels (-120) @ Tigers (+100)

Note: This is the second game of the doubleheader. First pitch will be thrown ~4:40 p.m. ET.

A Mike Trout-less Angels team taking on a Tigers side that ranks 28th in runs per game hardly seems like a match made in heaven for offense.

When you dig beneath the surface, though, there's plenty of reason to expect runs.

Matt Manning is pitching way over his head right now, having allowed only seven runs over his past five games (two or fewer in four of them). His actual pitching has been adequate - luck has really helped him out. His SIERA (5.04) much more accurately reflects how he's pitched over the last month than his ERA (2.52)

Opponents have hit only .190 on balls put in play against Manning in that time. That's nearly .100 points below where the average should be.

Manning has only thrown swinging strikes at a 7% rate and induced grounders less frequently than all of today's projected starters. Those aren't encouraging signs.

Even without Trout, the Angels have some quality bats - most notably the unicorn that is Shohei Ohtani - who are more than capable of exploiting someone with Manning's profile.

It's not just the Angels I like to score runs, though. The Tigers should be able to contribute as well.

For all their faults, they hit lefties pretty well, sitting 12th in the league in xwOBA versus left-handed pitching.

Patrick Sandoval owns a 4.16 ERA and has allowed 23 runs over his past seven starts (3.28 per), so it's not as if he's immune to a tough outing.

Factor in fatigue or lack of availability among a handful of bullpen arms that the teams will use in the first game of the doubleheader, and there's real potential for offense from start to finish.

Bet: Over 8.5 (-115, playable to -125)

Tanner Bibee under 2.5 earned runs

Guardians starter Tanner Bibee is in very good form right now. He conceded only four runs over his past five starts, during which time he's posted some encouraging underlying numbers.

He leads all of the day's projected starters - it's a smaller card, I know - in strike rate, swinging strike percentage, and xwOBA over the past month.

Opponents have had a miserable time making good contact against Bibee. None of today's starters have allowed line drives at a lower rate, while Bibee is the only pitcher who hasn't been barreled up even once. Yes, you're reading that correctly.

Bibee is missing bats and inducing a ton of soft contact, making it difficult on even strong offenses to produce runs.

During this dominant five-game stretch, Bibee has faced the Rangers (first in runs per game), Cubs (eighth in runs per game), and Brewers (heating up), among others. The schedule hasn't been a cakewalk, yet he's still given teams nothing.

The White Sox rank 29th in xwOBA against righties over the past two weeks, so I'm not sure they're going to be the team to snap Bibee's hot streak.

Expect another quality start this time around.

Odds: -105 (playable to -120)

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