Interested in the best NRFI bets today? You’ve come to the right place since our MLB experts share their no runs first inning picks on a daily basis! We go through the odds of the top MLB betting sites to find the highest value picks for this market and bring them to you.
You will find our top NRFI predictions in the table below, but we also share our reasoning for each bet and our overall strategy later in this article.
Best No Runs First Inning Bets for July 26
| NRFI Bets | Bookmaker |
|---|---|
| Guardians vs. Phillies NRFI (-116) | Betwhale |
| Mariners vs. White Sox NRFI (-140) | Bovada |
| Nationals vs. Cardinals NRFI (-132) | Betwhale |
If you’re also interested in similar picks, check out our best bets to score a home run today!
Our NRFI Picks for July 26 (With Reasoning)
After going through the latest no runs inning odds, we believe these are the best NRFI bets today, July 26.
Cleveland Guardians vs. Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies welcome the Cleveland Guardians to Citizens Bank Park for a three-game interleague series. Both clubs are up comfortably in their respective divisions entering Friday night!
Lefty Cristopher Sanchez is listed as the probable starter for the Phillies in the series opener. The guy has pitched like an ace for the Phillies this season. The fourth-year pitcher holds a 2.97 ERA and 1.24 WHIP across 109 innings. He’s allowed two or fewer earned runs in four of his previous four starts!
Sanchez has been red-hot on the mound at home, with a 1.50 ERA and 0.91 WHIP in 66 frames. He boasts a record of 6-1 at Citizens Bank Park in 2024. The Guardians’ Ben Lively should follow suit in the 1st inning.
Ben Lively, Nasty 91mph Front Door Two Seamer. 😨 pic.twitter.com/ApE8CjMV0L
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 21, 2024
Lively heads into Friday night with an ERA of 3.57 and a 1.19 WHIP. He enters in good form, with two or fewer runs conceded in four of his previous six starts. Lively has allowed four earned runs over his last 10.2 frames on the bump. For your NRFI picks, check out this matchup between the Guardians and Phillies!
Seattle Mariners vs. Chicago White Sox
The Mariners are in Illinois for a three-game tilt against the Chicago White Sox. George Kirby is scheduled to get the start for the Mariners at Guaranteed Rate Field. The pitcher owns a 3.20 ERA and 0.98 WHIP through 21 games this season. He isn’t in the Cy Young picture, but isn’t too far off.
The 26-year-old owns a 2.50 ERA and 0.94 WHIP across his last three performances. With just one earned run conceded in each of the last two games, Kirby is locked in right now.
He has been sharp against the White Sox in his career. This White Sox lineup has grabbed one RBI off Kirby in 17 at-bats. Additionally, the White Sox are 29th in the Major Leagues in runs scored per 1st inning!
MLB's No. 37 prospect Drew Thorpe lowers his ERA to 3.03 with his fifth straight quality start for the @whitesox:
6 IP
3 H
0 R
2 BB
5 K pic.twitter.com/0lIwaf7rXn— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 21, 2024
The White Sox are expected to counter with Drew Thorpe on the bump at home. He has been razor-sharp on the bump as of late. The outcher enters this start with a 1.47 ERA and 0.76 WHIP through his previous three starts on the hill. In just seven starts as a rookie, Thorpe has allowed two or fewer earned runs in six!
This is one of the best NRFI bets today, so consider adding the Mariners vs. White Sox to your card!
Washington Nationals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
The Nationals hand the ball to MacKenzie Gore on the road at Busch Stadium tonight. Gore enters St. Louis with a 4.20 ERA and 1.46 WHIP through 20 innings of work. He has been off the mark recently, but has preferred pitching on the road.
Gore owns a 3.86 ERA and 1.21 WHIP on the road this season. Conversely, Cardinals’ starter Sonny Gray is in top form at home. He has posted an ERA of 5.29 on the road, but a 2.14 ERA at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Gray has a favorable matchup against a Nats team that struggles to manufacture runs in the opening frame.
Sonny Gray hurls 7 innings of one-hit ball for the win.
The @Cardinals have the best record in the NL since May 12 (24-13) pic.twitter.com/anweH7Ev9z
— MLB (@MLB) June 23, 2024
The Nationals are dead last in the Major Leagues, averaging 0.30 runs per 1st inning. Additionally, Washington is just 22nd overall, with 4.11 runs scored per game. The NRFI between the Nationals and Cardinals is another option worth considering on Friday!
Our Daily No Runs First Inning Bets Strategy
We provide our reasoning for all daily NRFI picks, but we also want to share our general strategy for these bets. Learning how to approach the market can help you conduct your own predictions!
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to uncover good NRFI bets every day! We repeat the process for all games on the selected day and share the picks that come out on top on this page.
1. Check The Starting Lineups, Especially The Pitchers
You should always begin with the lineups. Check who the starting pitchers are and then go through the latest injuries and suspensions to see whether any of the teams will be missing key pieces.
We usually go to the CBS’ MLB injury report to see who’s out and who’s doubtful. They pull the data directly from league reports, so it’s trustworthy information.
2. Analyzing NRFI Stats
Once we know the most likely lineups, it’s time for a key step of our NRFI betting strategy: analyzing numbers. You need to go through various data points to determine how likely is for the opening inning of a game to end without any runs.
We explore the individual stats of the starting pitchers, we analyze the offensive numbers of both sides, and we also take a look at the total team stats for first inning runs.
Once we have a complete overview of what’s going on, we create our own estimates (in percentages) of how likely it is to see no runs in the first inning.
After that, it’s time to check the odds!
3. Line Shopping
It’s time to check some betting odds! We use two bookmakers that offer daily NRFI betting odds for the MLB: Bovada and BetWhale. We check their prices for all games and turn them into probabilities.
We compare them to our own estimates and when we see good betting value, we place our NRFI wagers!
We strongly recommend using multiple top betting sites yourself for the best results. The two we highlighted above are all excellent for no runs first inning bets.
We might add more options in the future, but we want to keep it manageable for readers who follow us for now. If you join any of them, you should know the market is called “Will there be a run in the first inning?” at both bookies.
More Daily Betting Picks From The Geek
Our team delivers sports betting picks on a daily basis. We have our AI picks that are generated by The Geek, our own artificial intelligence betting creation! The Geek covers major US sports daily, so check the latest recommended bets. For now, we don’t have an automated NRFI algorithm, and all picks are manual, but this could change in the future.
We also have the Sports Geek blog, where our writers work hard to uncover profitable angles. You will find predictions and recommended bets for sports, politics, entertainment, esports … pretty much anything you can bet on, so stay tuned!
