FanDuel Bettor Hits 8-Team MLB Parlay for $30K in Absolutely Crazy Fashion Thanks to Comebacks (VIDEO)

Posted on: August 12, 2019, 11:01h. 

Last updated on: August 13, 2019, 02:43h.

Steve Bittenbender Read More

Expertise: Legislation, Sports Betting, Horse Racing.

When Kris Bryant and Lane Thomas hit go-ahead home runs for the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively, on Sunday, they didn’t just come through for their teams. The two blasts helped an undisclosed bettor complete an eight-team Major League Baseball (MLB) parlay with FanDuel Sportsbook.

Kevin Hennessy, the book’s director of publicity, said the $100 wager paid out $30,000.

Parlays involve one bet on multiple games and provide an exponential return if successful. If the bettor picks wrong on any of the selected games, they lose the entire bet.

The winning bettor picked five moneyline (or straight-up) games: the Cubs over the Cincinnati Reds, the Washington Nationals over the New York Mets, the Atlanta Braves over the Miami Marlins, the Cleveland Indians over the Minnesota Twins, and the Oakland Athletics over the Chicago White Sox. In addition, they picked three favorites on the run line: the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Kansas City Royals over the Detroit Tigers, and the Cardinals over the Pittsburgh Pirates. All favorites were spotting 1.5 runs, meaning they’d need to win by at least two runs.

The winning bettor needed some luck to earn their payday. For starters, the Indians won 7-3. However, they needed an extra inning to beat the Twins after Minnesota rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth.

That’s just the beginning of it.

Cubs Rally in Cincy

In picking the Cubs at Cincinnati, the bettor picked a team that, despite leading the National League Central, had just a 22-35 record on the road. The Reds had their ace, Luis Castillo, on the mound, and after five, the home team led 3-0.

The Cubs made it 3-2 with two outs in the seventh and chased Castillo at that point after Jason Heyward hit a high-hop infield single. Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen came in and gave up a hit to Nicholas Castellanos. That set the stage for Bryant, who hit a three-run blast to give the Cubs a 5-3 lead.

Bryant’s blast affected the game’s Win Probability by 48 percent, flipping it from a 70 percent chance the Reds would win to a 78 percent chance the Cubs would prevail.

Chicago ended up winning 6-3.

Meanwhile in St. Louis

St. Louis seemed like an easy choice on Sunday for a parlay. Especially since the Pirates entered Sunday by winning just 4 of 27 games after the All-Star Break. Yet Pittsburgh led 8-4 heading into the seventh-inning stretch.

Pittsburgh held a 95 percent chance to win the game after getting the first batter out in the bottom of the seventh. However, two singles and a pair of hit-by-pitches drove in a run and loaded the bases for Thomas, a 23-year-old rookie who was making just his second career start and his first since April.

With a full count and two out in the inning, Thomas sent Kyle Crick’s seventh pitch of the at-bat into the Pirates bullpen in left center to give the Cards a 9-8 lead.

I knew he had walked and had trouble (with) a few guys in front of me, so I knew he was going to throw a fastball,” Thomas told MLB.com. “I tried to get ready for it and put a good swing on it.”

It was a great swing for the bettor, too, but it still wasn’t enough for them, since they still needed one more run to cover the spread. The Cards got that in the next inning on a Dexter Fowler two-run homer, which made it a three-run game.

That extra run came in handy, as Pittsburgh got a run back in the ninth. But the Cardinals still covered, winning 11-9.