Back young gun Cade Cavalli in Nats' debut

Can you check for us if Paul Goldschmidt hit a homer yesterday? He hit two?! Very cool, thank you. Let's continue what has been a marvelous MLB week by going back to the pitchers on this fine Friday.

Backing the young gun making his debut — There are two sides to the coin when betting on a pitcher in his MLB debut. On one end, you have no true historical performance to back up a play at certain odds. On the other, the team he's facing has never seen his stuff, which could give the edge back to the man on the rubber. We're putting our eggs in the latter basket by targeting Cade Cavalli in his first career professional start tonight. The Washington Nationals pitcher has been called up from Triple-A Rochester as one of Washington's top prospects. His last two starts in the minors were gems: 19 total strikeouts and five hits allowed. In his two years in the minors, Cavalli averaged 1.27 Ks/inning. His set line today is at 4.5, and he'll get a very favorable draw in the Cincinnati Reds, who both fan at an aggressive rate against RHP while simultaneously unable to hit them effectively. Aaron Nola was the latest beneficiary, tossing a complete game shutout yesterday and racking up 11 Ks. Now, we're not comparing Cavalli to Nola, but it goes to show that the youngster's first start has been served up to him on a silver platter. He's had some big strikeout games this season in the minors, going over 4.5 Ks in 10 of his last 16 games. Eight times out of those 10 Cavalli got to six-plus strikeouts, and that's where our attention goes today.

Betting: Cade Cavalli 6+ Ks (+150 FD)

Looking to another rookie to shine on the mound once again — Minnesota Twins rookie RHP Joe Ryan has had a strong first season and should have a bright future. We're looking to his strikeouts tonight against a San Francisco Giants team that has been quite generous to righties lately. Nine straight starting RHP to see San Francisco have gone over their K totals. Tonight, Ryan's line is set at 5.5, a number he has exceeded in five of his past six starts and three straight at home. The Giants wRC+ against RHP is ninth-worst in the league over the past month, suggesting to us that Ryan should find himself pitching six innings tonight. Given he averages just about 1 K/inning, that's all we need.

Betting: Joe Ryan over 5.5 Ks (+106 FD)

In the news ...

WNBA semifinals begin on Sunday — Then there were four. The four top seeds in the WNBA playoffs all advanced past the first round and now meet in what is a star-studded semifinal field. We have the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces against the Seattle Storm, with the two MVP favorites in A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart going at it. Then we have the defending champion Chicago Sky against one of the best teams all season long in the Connecticut Sun. The Aces remain the favorite to win the whole thing at +105, followed by the Sky at +330. It's hard to not bet on Chicago to win it all again at those odds. They swept Connecticut in four games this season, giving them the edge in this best-of-five series.

Scheffler heads into the weekend with the Tour Championship lead — As to be expected given his -10 starting edge as the World No. 1, Scottie Scheffler stands at the top of the leaderboard after the first day in East Lake. Scheffler is currently -15 as of this morning, five strokes ahead of Xander Schauffele. We'll see if anyone can challenge him for the title. He is currently -120 to win to Schauffele's +550.

Chet Holmgren injury impacts Rookie of the Year betting — With Thunder rookie Chet Holmgren set to miss his first NBA season, the betting odds shuffled quite a bit for winner of Rookie of the Year. We were high on Holmgren, and we're migrating our love for the big man onto Detroit guard Jaden Ivey at +700. Ivey figures to start immediately for the Pistons, forming a tantalizing backcourt with last year's top pick Cade Cunningham.

Today's Bark Bets is written by Griffin Carroll