Brian Hay
Royals vs. Cardinals
Play: Cardinals -124
The Kansas City Royals have now lost seven of their last nine games. The Royals can't pitch or hit right now so that makes it extremely difficult to win a baseball game. The Royals have allowed four or more runs in seven of their last eight games and have lost seven of their last eight games when allowing more than one run. Kansas City will pitch Trevor Cahill tonight. Cahil is 4-3 with a 4.13 ERA. Cahill is 1-3 with a 3.55 ERA in his career against the Cardinals.
The St. Louis Cardinals are on a much needed four-game winning streak. The Cardinals offence has exploded with 34 runs in their last three games and four or more runs in five of their last seven games. St Louis will trott Mike Leake out to the mound tonight. Leake is 7-10 with a 3.34 ERA. This will be Leake’s second career game against the Royals.
The Royals are 1-4 in their last 5 road games and 0-4 in their last 4 interleague games. The Cardinals are 7-2 in their last 9 home games Leake has allowed just six earned runs in his last 18 innings and has an ERA of just 3.20 at home.
Matt Fargo
Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks
Play: Diamondbacks +115
Arizona cooled off the Dodgers, at least for one day, as it took Game One of this series by turning a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 thanks to a four-run seventh inning. The Diamondbacks snapped a two-game slide with the victory and improved to 37-18 at home while also ending a four-game skid to the Dodgers. It was a big win for standings purposes as they leapfrogged Colorado in the National League Wild Card standings. Los Angeles had a four-game winning streak snapped and we all know the how far back the success has been over the last couple months so no need to delve into that but there is a point that needs to be brought up. The Dodgers have been just as strong on the road as they have been at home but since this streak started June 7, there have been only 23 road games played and they are 2-2 against teams with a winning record. The highlight of this game is the pitching matchup with Alex Wood taking on Zack Greinke. Wood has been outstanding this season and was 11-0 at one point and now sits at 13-1 after going 2-1 over his last three starts. It has been a rough stretch though and going back the Dodgers are 2-5 in his last seven road starts against teams with a winning record. While he is 5-0 on the highway, Greinke is 10-0 at home with Arizona winning 11 of 12 at Chase Field. He has a 2.39 home ERA which is incredible considering Chase Field is considered a hitter-friendly park. He has dominated the dodgers at home in two starts, allowing three runs over 13 innings while Wood has allowed 10 runs in 6.1 innings in two starts here since joining the Dodgers.
Jimmy Boyd
Cubs vs. Giants
Play: Under 7½
This is a low total for this season, but I'll gladly take my chances here with the Cubs and Giants not exceding 8 runs in Wednesday's series finale. That's because we have a big time pitching matchup going in this one with Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs taking on Madison Bumgarner of the Giants.
Both of these starters recently returned to their respective rotations after a lengthy stint on the DL. Each has pitched well since returning and are getting stronger with each start. Hendricks limited the potent Nationals offense to just 3 runs on 5 hits in 7 innings in his last outing, giving him a 2.76 ERA over his last 3 starts. Bumgarner has pitched exactly 7 innings in each of his last 2 starts and allowed just 2 runs on 10 hits combined (5 each start). The impressive thing is those two outings came against two playoff teams in the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
Tony Stoffo
Boston at Tampa Bay
Play: Boston -119
Boston will try to make it eight in a row as they send out RH Rick Porcello. The Red Sox are 6-0 in their last 6 games following a win and 9-2 in Porcello's last 11 starts with 5 days of rest.
Tampa Bay has lost three of their last four and will counter with RH Jake Odorizzi. The Rays are 2-6 in their last 8 home games vs. a right-handed starter and 0-4 in Odorizzi's last 4 home starts.
Dennis Macklin
Phillies vs. Braves
Play: Under 9½
Both of tonight's starters are in excellent form. The Phillies Jared Eickoff is 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA in his last three starts with the Under 2-0-1. Sean Newcomb is off three straight quality starts despite walking 15 in a little more than 16 innings work. Philly 3-1-1 Under L5, Atlanta 5-1 Under L6. The starters are nibblers but keep the ball in the park. This is an 11 day pitching rematch that Eickoff won 4-3 in Atlanta.
Jack Jones
Minnesota at Milwaukee
Play: Milwaukee -151
The Milwaukee Brewers lost their first two meetings with the Twins in Minnesota. Now they'll head home highly motivated for a victory in Game 3 of this interleague series. And they should get it with ease as Bartolo Colon gets the ball for the Twins.
It's amazing in a bad way that Colon still has a job in the big leagues. He has gone 3-9 with a 7.32 ERA and 1.683 WHIP in 17 starts this season, including 1-5 with a 7.33 ERA and 1.768 WHIP in 10 road starts. He faced the Brewers back on April 28th, giving up 6 earned runs and 12 base runners in 5 innings.
Brandon Woodruff will be making his second start of the season for the Brewers after an impressive debut on August 4th. He pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings in a 2-0 win at the Tampa Bay Rays.
Milwaukee is 13-2 (+9.9 Units) against the money line as a favorite of -125 to -175 this season. The Brewers are 9-1 in home games when playing against a marginal losing team (Win Pct. 46% to 49%) this season. The Twins are 4-26 in their last 30 interleague road games vs. a team with a winning record. The Brewers are 38-18 in their last 56 games after losing the first 2 games of a series.
Dave Price
Cubs vs. Giants
Play:Cubs -104
The Cubs are 13-4 in their last 17 road games. They are 21-8 in their last 29 vs. left-handed starters and have the 3rd-best OPS against southpaws this season. They should be able to score enough runs off of Madison Bumgarner to get a win here today. Kyle Hendricks is returning to form, going 0-1 with a 2.76 ERA in his last 3 starts. Hendricks is 2-2 with a 3.95 ERA and 1.10 WHIP in 5 lifetime starts vs. San Francisco. The Cubs are hitting .282 and scoring 6.2 RPG against left-handed starters this season. The Giants are 0-10 after 3 or more consecutive overs this season. San Francisco is 1-8 in Bumgarner's 9 starts this season.
Wunderdog
Baltimore @ Los Angeles
Pick: Los Angeles +122
Baltimore is 3,000 miles from home and playing its third straight road game. The Orioles are on a 12-27 run on the road, 9-20 away against a team with a winning home record, ranked last in the AL in team pitching. Baltimore righty Kevin Gausman (5.15 ERA) has a 5.77 ERA on the road where batters are hitting .324 off him. He has a 4.66 ERA in three career starts against the Angels and the team is 12-29 when Gausman starts on the road. Baltimore is also 15-30 away against teams whose hitters strike out seven or more times a game. The L.A. Angels are on a 7-3 run at home and this is their ninth straight home game. Los Angeles has been a strong second half team under this manager, on a 28-10 second half run at home against a team with a losing record, so back the home dog and play the L.A. Angels.
Zack Cimini
Padres at Reds
Play: Reds
The Reds were stymied on Tuesday against the Padres by early runs. Wednesday the Padres will try to rely on veteran Travis Wood. Wood has done enough in his first two starts as a Padre to foresee continued rising value on the Padres. Yet, I think this is a safe spot to secure a rare expensive price for a team twenty-one games below .500.
Buster Sports
Marlins vs. Nationals
Play: Nationals -1.5
The Marlins and the Nationals play game 3 of their four-game series in Washington tonight. We will be on the Nationals tonight -1 1/2 runs, and here is why. The starting pitchers for tonight’s game are for the Marlins LH Adam Conley (4-4, 5.10 ERA) and he will face the Nationals LH Gio Gonzalez (9-5, 2.66 ERA) Conley, although pitching well of late has really struggled against Washington. In 4 career starts against the Nationals he has a nasty 8.00 ERA with a WHIP of 1.889. As for Gonzalez, he took a no-hitter going into the 8th inning against the Marlins on July 31st but unfortunately gave up a hit although he did get the win. This year Gonzalez has faced the Marlins now three times. In 21 innings pitched he has only given up three runs. We look for Gonzalez to have another quality start again tonight. The line at the time of this writing is -180. As our clients know we never lay that type of juice, so we will be more than happy to take the plus money on the run line with the Nationals.
Dwayne Bryant
Pirates at Tigers
Play: Over 9
My system likes Verlander's high 10% BB%, and his 4.70 xFIP indicates more rocky outings lie ahead. JV hosted Pittsburgh once in each of the last two seasons, allowing nine earned runs in just 10 1/3 innings. The Pirates are averaging five runs in their road night games against righties.
Nova has made three career appearances (two starts) at Comerica Park, and owns a hefty 8.25 ERA there.
The Tigers are averaging 4.9 runs in their home night games against righties.
The Pirates bullpen is pretty solid, but the Tigers pen is more than capable of giving up runs in bunches.
System Projected Total: 10
3G-SPORTS
Seattle vs. Oakland
Play: Oakland -103
The A's are getting better - now that they are getting some healthy play and out of their poor hitting slump. Oakland's Jed Lowrie has been providing more gap hitting and patience at the plate this last week with a .320 avg - which is nothing to take lightly for the pitching of Seattle. Seattle has a poor rotation, bottom line. With only 2 guys who have been pitching even close to upper quality. Gallardo has not been one of those upper guys on the mound for them. The Seattle guys are currently ranked 15th in ERA - and that is with Gallardo pitching his 4th time vs the A's this season. This game is time for Oakland to put some distance between the true bottom dwellers and them, for respect. Oakland wins this one on Winsday afternoon.
A. J. PENNY
Boston vs. Tampa Bay
Play: Boston-118
Boston will try to make it eight in a row as they send out RH Rick Porcello. The Red Sox are 6-0 in their last 6 games following a win and 9-2 in Porcello's last 11 starts with 5 days of rest. Tampa Bay has lost three of their last four and will counter with RH Jake Odorizzi. The Rays are 2-6 in their last 8 home games vs. a right-handed starter and 0-4 in Odorizzi's last 4 home starts. Take Boston.
Eric Schroeder
My free play for tonight is on the Under in the Miami Marlins-Washington Nationals clash in D.C.
Conley has his hands full with these Washington Nationals, and I think he'll be up for the challenge. He won two straight starts before encountering tough luck at Atlanta his last time out, allowing four runs (three earned). But in four starts since the All-Star break, his ERA is 2.42, while he has worked at least 6 innings in three of the four outings.
On the other hand, there is Gonzalez, who steps to the rubber after his best outing of the season, when he took a no-hitter to the ninth inning on July 31 against these same Marlins. He finished the game allowing one hit in eight-plus innings. He'll pitch another gem.
Play this low.
5* Marlins/Nationals Under
Jeff Benton
Wednesday freebie is the Padres and Reds to continue to slug the ball around the park tonight and play another Over.
Monday is was 11-3 in favor of the Reds, while last night it was 7-3 in favor of the Padres.
2 games, 2 Overs.
San Diego has now played their last 3, and 4 of their last 5 Over the total, while Cincinnati has played 3 straight in the Over column.
It will be Travis Wood and Asher Wojciechowski serving them up tonight. Wood has a 4.91 ERA in a couple of starts since coming over from Kansas City, while Wojciechowski has done most of his work this season out of the bullpen, and sports a season ERA over 4.
Play the runs to add up tonight between the Padres and the Reds.
2* SAN DIEGO-CINCINNATI OVER