Betting the Baltimore Orioles has been an extremely profitable endeavor so far in 2022.

The Orioles are far and away the best MLB team against the spread so far this season. The team with the lowest payroll in Major League Baseball has overachieved against preseason expectations through the first 84 games. While Baltimore is in last place in the AL East, the Orioles are 40-44 and have more wins than six other teams in the American League.

Baltimore is well on pace to easily hitting the over on its preseason win total. The Orioles had the lowest total of any team in MLB at 62.5 and are set to hit the over with 31 games to go at this rate. Not many teams eclipse their preseason win total in August.

That torrid win rate — relatively speaking, of course — is why Baltimore is the only team in baseball to cover the spread in more than 60% of its games so far this season. The Orioles are 53-31 against the spread according to TeamRankings.com and have been even hotter since the start of June.

The Orioles are 24-10 against the run line since June 1 as oddsmakers continue to give the Orioles 1.5 runs against the spread. All but three of Baltimore’s wins against the run line since the start of June have come with the Orioles as underdogs.

One of those three wins as a favorite came Thursday night against the Los Angeles Angels. The Orioles beat the Angels 4-1 on Thursday as 1.5-run favorites and bettors who took the Orioles at +180 giving the Angels 1.5 runs made a handy profit.

Baltimore is a favorite again on Friday night as Tyler Wells takes the mound against the Angels’ Reid Detmers. Wells has been fantastic over his last four starts. The 27-year-old has given up just three earned runs in 22 innings after he allowed three runs in six innings against the Royals on June 11.

He’s a key part of Baltimore’s league average pitching staff so far this season. While the Orioles have one of the worst offenses in baseball, Baltimore is within spitting distance of .500 overall and a fantastic choice for bettors thanks to a staff with an ERA of 3.99 and a walk rate of 2.9 per nine innings.

Scottish Open hits the halfway point

You can place your bets for the third round of the Scottish Open Friday afternoon after the second round concludes just after Noon on the East Coast.

The British Open warmup tormented golfers on Thursday afternoon with high winds and more are forecast for Friday afternoon. Cameron Tringale shot a 9-under 61 for a three-shot lead in the first round thanks to an early-morning tee time. He’ll tee off Friday afternoon in Scotland and may come back to the field a little bit if he’s troubled by high winds. Take a look at the odds for the tournament after play concludes Friday and make your bets for the weekend.

A full weekend of racing

There are four races to bet over the weekend. The Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix is on Sunday and the race weekend is a sprint weekend for the series. That means drivers will compete in a short race on Saturday to set the starting order for Sunday’s race. Points leader and defending champion Max Verstappen is at better than even odds to win the race on Sunday and get his fifth win at the Red Bull Ring.

The NASCAR Truck Series is at the Mid-Ohio road course for the first time on Saturday in what could be a carnival while the Xfinity Series and Cup Series are racing at the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway for the second time. Atlanta was reconfigured to produce pack racing and the unpredictability of the track — and the myriad wrecks that happened in March at Atlanta — are why no driver is better than +1000 to win Sunday’s Cup Series race.

Who cashed bets on Thursday?

The Astros joined the Orioles in the win column on Thursday with a 5-2 win over the Royals. It was Justin Verlander’s 11th victory of the season as he has a 2.00 ERA over 103.1 innings so far this season. The Mariners also got to .500 on the season on Thursday night with an 8-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.