While overshadowed by some of his teammates in the rotation this season, Cole is having another ace-level season with outstanding numbers across the board including a 25.4 K-BB%. The Yankees provide plenty of run support, leading baseball with a 120 wRC+ as offseason additions like Jose Trevino plus a bounce-back season by Gleyber Torres has helped add depth to the star-studded core. Javier can get a little wild with a walk rate that is just under 10% and is not typically very efficient with his pitching count, with the Yankees poised to jump on any mistake he makes. This is a tough team to bet against right now even facing a strong Astros side, and Cole will lead another win here.

The Cubs have been a disaster, especially this month. They have somehow only won seven games in the entire month and now feature one of the worst records in the Major Leagues. The Cardinals are a strong club that has won eight out of their last ten home games. The Cardinals should feast on Cubs' starter Adrian Sampson in this one. Sampson has amassed a 5.01 career ERA at the Major League level and has only made two appearances all season. Chicago has a few injuries to the starting pitching staff, plus the team is rebuilding and just don’t have the pitching depth. Cards’ starter Miles Mikolas continues to dazzle, registering a marvelous 2.57 ERA in his four starts this month.

Braves have been lights out in the month of June with an 18-3 record heading into Friday night's matchup. Secondly, the raw emotion of Freeman's return will have subsided by Saturday night and the baseball should take center stage. With this in mind, I'm leaning more towards Fried in this battle of excellent left-handers. While Heaney's been excellent in a limited sample this season, he will certainly be on a pitch count which will mean the game gets turned over to the Dodgers' bullpen probably a bit earlier than they'd like. Fried will likely get deeper into the game and thus get to the Braves' strong backend of the pen. Look for the hot-hitting Braves to take advantage of Heaney's early exit and put up some runs against a Dodger bullpen that is slightly more vulnerable than in years past.

The Blue Jays are at a disadvantage when Kikuchi has been on the mound this month. The veteran has allowed three or more runs in four consecutive outings and did not reach the fifth inning in any of these performances. He has surrendered a whopping seven homers in that span. Furthermore, Brewers’ starter Corbin Burnes is fresh off seven shutout innings against the Cardinals. The ace has limited his opponent to two or fewer runs in five out of his last six starts. The Blue Jays' bullpen has been an issue as well and they have dropped five out of their last eight games.