John Martin
Rockies vs. Pirates
Play: Rockies -113
The Colorado Rockies have dropped the first two games of this series with the Pirates and three straight overall. I am anticipating them to get back in the wind column here Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Rockies have the advantage on the mound and at the plate. German Marquez has been at his best on the road with a 3.24 ERA in five starts. Chad Kuhl has been awful everywhere as he is 1-2 with a 5.63 ERA in 12 starts and 1-3 with a 7.71 ERA in seven home starts. The Rockies are 15-3 in their last 18 after scoring 2 runs or less in their previous game. Colorado is 5-1 in Marquez's last six starts. The Pirates are 1-10 in Kuhl's last 11 starts vs. a team with a winning record.
Mark Franco
Nationals - 157
Julio Teheran is unbeaten on the road this season but he could be hard-pressed to keep that streak intact when the Atlanta Braves visit the Washington Nationals on Wednesday in the rubber match of a three-game set. After blowing a late lead in the series opener, Washington halted a four-game skid by amassing 10 runs for the second straight night Tuesday in a 10-5 victory.
Teheran finally turned in a solid start at home with six innings of one-run ball in a no-decision against the New York Mets on Friday. He earned the win at Cincinnati on June 4 despite getting pounded for seven runs and 11 hits and beat the Angels on May 29 by allowing three runs on solo homers.
Roark allowed five runs and a season-worst 11 hits over six innings in a loss to Texas on Friday, snapping his three-start winning streak. He gave up five runs over 21 2/3 innings during his previous three turns, which followed a four-start winless drought. He is 5-1 with a 1.96 ERA versus Atlanta.
Braves are 2-6 in Teherans last 8 starts vs. a team with a winning record. Nationals are 11-4 in Roarks last 15 starts vs. National League East. Home team is 7-1 in Fletchers last 8 games behind home plate vs. Washington.
Dave Price
Texas Rangers +146
The Texas Rangers have now won 5 straight road games all at underdog prices. And now they're a big dog to the Houston Astros, who are just 2-6 in their last 8 games overall. And Houston has run into some injury problems in their rotation to Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers. That means 21-year-old Francis Martes is forced into his first major league start tonight for the Astros. We'll fade him and back Andrew Cashner, who sports a 3.17 ERA in 11 starts this year. Cashner has held his own against the Astros as well, sporting a 3.91 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 4 lifetime starts against them. The Rangers are 6-0 in their last 6 road games.
The Prez
Rockies at Pirates
Play: Under 9
Colorado and Pittsburgh take PNC Park field on Wednesday night with a scheduled start time of 7:05 p.m. ET with right-handers German Marquez (4-3, 4.44 ERA) of the Rockies opposing Chad Kuhl (1-5, 5.37 ERA).
Rockies starter German Marquez is coming off a poor performance against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Marquez threw 80 pitches in just three innings of work allowing two runs on two hits. The Colorado righty walked three and struck out five and has now allowed five-plus runs in three of his nine starts. While Marquez has impressed in six of his trips to the mound allowing two runs or less his SwStrike percentage is low and his hard contact percentage is high. Through his first 48.2 innings his 4.44 ERA is in line with his 4.85 FIP and while he is averaging a strikeout per inning he is being punished by his 37% hard contact rate and mediocre 9% swinging strike percentage. Marquez' home and away splits offer him situational support as a visitor and this is the case in a hump-night event at PNC in Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.
Bucs' young right-hander, Chad Kuhl, earned a no decision in his last start at Camden Yards against the Orioles tossing five innings of one run ball. However, he walked (4) as many as he struck out and averaged nearly 20 pitches per inning. Kuhl's 3.78 FIP suggests he is due for positive regression as do his other underlying skill set numbers. The Pittsburgh starter has recorded an 11.5% SwStrike rate and needs only have marginal control to improve his unsightly 1-5 mark on the season.
The matchup on Wednesday night favors both starter throwing from the pitcher-friendly mound of PNC Park with a pitcher-friendly home plate umpire. Scheduled home plate ump, Chris Conroy, has one of the highest strike to ball ratios among active umpires. In 2017 he has been behind the plate 11 times registering 4 overs to 7 unders and in 2016 his 2.57 SO/BB ratio was in the Top-10 percent of the season ending umpire stats.
Buster Sports
Rays at Blue Jays
Play: Rays +140
The Rays have quietly gone on a nice little roll of late winning 6 out of 7 games and we see them as a live dog here tonight against the Blue Jays. The starting pitchers for tonight are for the Rays RH Jake Odorizzi (4-3, 3.59 ERA) and he will face the Blue Jays LH Francisco Liriano (3-2, 5.87 ERA) Odorizzi has owned the Jays this year and in two winning starts he has held the Jays to 3 runs over 13 innings. As for Liriano this will be his 4th start this year against the Rays and although he has a 2-1 record against them he has been beat up for 9 runs over 9 innings pitched. The Rays are very familiar with Liriano and with the lefty sporting a 9.00 ERA in his last 3 starts we will be happy to take plus 140 at the time of this writing especially when we believe we have the better pitcher.
Harry Bondi
CHICAGO WHITE SOX (+115) over Baltimore
We scored another free winner here last night on the White Sox and we’ll ride them again tonight. Cray to see the Orioles as a slight favorite as they have now lost six in a row and eight of their last 10. The bullpen’s ERA has soared to 5.60 ERA on the road this year and overall the team is now 10-22 away from home. ChiSox starter Miguel Gonzalez is 3-1 at home this year with a 3.27 ERA. Take the home dog again!
Andre Ramirez
Dodgers vs. Indians
Play: Dodgers +138
I am siding with the Dodgers in this contest. McCarthy continues to pitch well, conceding only five runs over his last four starts (23 innings), so he should be able to contain the Indians bats. The Indians have not been very productive at the plate and they are going against a dominating bullpen, giving more incentive to go with the Dodgers. In addition, Kluber has been very inconsistent this season, and the Dodgers have scored five or more runs in three straight games, so they should be able to do enough to get the win.
Eric Schroeder
My free play for Wednesday night is on the Chicago White Sox over the Baltimore Orioles.
The teams opened their series on the South Side, in what was being billed as a matchup of slumping teams. But the Orioles were demoralized in the Bronx over the weekend, and then had to head to Chicago to continue their road trip.
The White Sox returned home after losing two of three in Cleveland, where they concluded an eight-game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the Indians on Sunday.
But the Pale Hose were in a better position to right their ship, and did with Monday night's 10-7 win, then carried the momentum over with a 6-1 victory last night. Baltimore has lost six consecutive games by a combined margin of 60-17.
Not only is Baltimore mired in a six-game slump, but it is also in a 6-16 rut and is batting a meager .246 in June, the seventh-worst batting average this month.
Take the White Sox, don't list pitchers.
3* WHITE SOX
Jeff Benton
Wednesday night comp play will be the Under in the Baltimore-Chicago meeting.
Last night these teams held Under the total, as the Pale Hose have now held Under the total in 3 of their last 4 games played.
Dylan Bundy did see his last start against the Yankees land Over the total, but his 3 starts prior were all Under the total. In fact 5 of his last 8 overall have landed Over the total.
True, one of his starts in that stretch did come against the White Sox and landed Over the total, but Bundy did go 6 innings in that start with 3 runs allowed.
Overall, the Under is 11-4-1 when Bundy starts on grass.
Miguel Gonzalez will counter, and his numbers of late have not been conducive to an Under, but he does boast a 3.38 home ERA this season, and he did hold the O's to just 2 runs back on May 5th in a game that held Under the total.
Let's stay with the Under in this Wednesday night meeting in the Windy City.
4* BALTIMORE-WHITE SOX UNDER
Chris Jordan
I'm ready to improve on this 110-81-4 run with free picks, including a 35-28 mark on the MLB season with freebies.
My free play for Hump Day is in the Lone Star State, where I'm taking the Houston Astros over the Texas Rangers. And in this game I want you listing young right-hander Francis Martes over veteran Andrew Cashner.
Martes has been forced into this start, and will make his first career MLB start, after making his big-league debut last Friday as a reliever. It wasn't the best introduction, as Martes allowed four earned runs in 3.2 innings, so I think he'll be looking to avenge that performance with a better showing tonight.
Cashner, meanwhile, has been a respectable 3-2 with a 3.27 ERA in his past seven starts, but he is also 0-2 with a 5.25 ERA in two starts this season against these Astros. He is also 2-3 with a 3.22 ERA in six starts this year, while toting a suitcase.
I'll play the Astros, as Martes pitches the best game of his career, at any level.
4* ASTROS
Bob Balfe
Red Sox -125
The Phillies are the worst team in baseball at hitting left handed pitching and really it takes a big home run with men on base for them to be even in some of these games. Philadelphia is on a big losing streak and I just don’t see them breaking the streak with such a low batting average against left handed starters.