Tiny Nick’s Gambling Picks: 9/10

Locks

MLB (1 Unit) San Diego Padres/L.A. Dodgers First 5 Innings Under 4 (-110): 9:10 PM on SportsNet LA

This game should be another playoff-type atmosphere with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers in the thick of wild card and division races. Those high stakes should help to hold scoring to a minimum, at least to start the game.

This has been a fairly low-scoring season series despite the offensive prowess of both teams, with 7 of the 13 meetings going under tonight’s full game total. But the bulk of the scoring has been done later in games between these teams, with the first 5 innings going 8-1-4 under this total. That should continue tonight with two good pitchers on the mound. Julio Urias has been a revelation for the Dodgers, only allowing 8 total runs in his past 8 starts, good for a 1.42 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in that stretch. Joe Musgrove has also been strong, going at least 5 innings in each of his last 8 starts and allowing 2 or fewer runs in all but one of those games.

With this game being managed tightly by both teams and good pitchers taking the mound, I’ll trust the trends to continue and produce another low-scoring start.

NCAA Football (1 Unit) Kansas @ Coastal Carolina -26 (-110): 6:30 PM CT on ESPN2

If college football had something similar to relegation for bad teams, Kansas would be a leading candidate to get sent down to the FCS level. They showed it last week by needing a touchdown with a minute left to win a home game against FCS South Dakota. The pitiful Jayhawks lost six times last season by more than this margin, and are in for another beatdown tonight.

Coastal Carolina’s arrival on the college football scene has been their consecutive wins at Kansas the past two seasons, both times as touchdown underdogs. Now they’re hosting on the Surf Turf and looking to continue their ownership of the lowly Jayhawks. Quarterback Grayson McCall and the Chants looked sharp, focused, and motivated in demolishing The Citadel last week, and that should play a big role in this game. Kansas is their only Power 5 opponent this season, and Coastal needs style points to potentially move ahead of Cincinnati as the top Group of 5 team if the Bearcats stumble against a tougher schedule.

There’s really no overstating how bad Kansas is: 0-7 ATS against their past 7 ranked opponents and almost completely devoid of talent in coach Lance Leipold’s first season. Coastal has all the motivation on national TV and far more talent, so this one can and should get ugly.

Degenerates

No degenerates today.

Tiny Nick is 371-270 ATS (+82.8 Units) on his Locks since joining Zone Coverage. 

Every day he will offer his Locks and Degenerate picks. Locks are the games he's confident in. Degenerates are entertaining but riskier picks.