Brad Diamond
San Francisco Giants vs. St Louis Cardinals
Play: St Louis Cardinals -148
Giants rotate in off a four game win streak, while the Cards show off a loss 7-3 L10. St. Louis is 5-0 off a loss, SF 6-1 with RHP Heston as an underdog. However, we prefer the Cardinals tonight considering RHP Heston has been cracked in 2/3 encounters (Houston and Texas) during August (5.40 ERA)...St. Louis RHP Wacha 14-4 with a nice 2.93 and a sharp 1.12 WHIP gets our ticket with his unit 62-23 as a chalk...Look for the Cardinals to break the Giants recent win streak in this building.
Brandon Lee
Oakland A's vs. Baltimore Orioles
Play: Oakland A's -102
Oakland is definitely worth a look here at basically a pick'em on the road against the Orioles. The A's will be sending out their ace and one of the elite starters of 2015 in Sonny Gray. In 23 starts, Gray has posted a 2.06 ERA and 0.959 WHIP with a 12-4 record. Gray has been even stronger on the road, where he's 8-1 with a 1.64 ERA in 12 starts. To top it off, Gray has a 0.72 ER and 0.680 WHIP in his last 3 starts. Orioles are just 14-22 in their last 26 after allowing 2 runs or less in their last game and 21-33 in their last 54 after 3 or more consecutive wins.
Sports Data Query Group
Boston Red Sox +132
The Indians are off a 4-1 loss in Minnesota in which they managed only six hits. The Tribe has had a hard time recovering from similar performances. Cleveland is 0-11 in the first game of a series after a road loss in which they had 6 or fewer hits.
Note that the Tribe are 0-5 in this spot this season and they were the favorite in three of the five defeats.
The Red Sox lost 10-8 in extra innings yesterday. The had 13 hits, but they allowed 18 hits and they struck out 14 times. This is actually a positive indicator, as Boston is 6-0 as a dog and after a loss in which they allowed at least a dozen hits, winning by an average of 3.5 runs per game.
It is also worth mentioning that Boston is 5-0 at home and after a game in which they struck out at least ten times.
Boston has to be the right play at this inflated price.
Fantasy Sports
Pittsburgh -180
Pittsburgh has won 14 of the last 16 games vs. NL West Division Opponents and they have won 39 of the last 57 home games. Pittsburgh has won 24 of the last 28 games when playing as a favorite of -175 to -250 and they have won 25 of the last 38 games when playing in the 2nd half of the season.
Bob Balfe
A’s -105
Baltimore has been beating up on the A’s this year, but Sonny Gray is on the mound tonight. When Gray is even money you take him, it really is as simple as that. Oakland flies back to the west coast tonight and have yet to win a game on this road trip. This will have a playoff like feel to it tonight. The A’s will do everything they can behind their ace to make the long flight back at least a little more pleasing.
OC Dooley
Red Sox +135
It is easy to see why Cleveland has been cast as a road favorite since tonight’s starter Danny Salazar in the past three trips to the mound has posted a brilliant SUB-ONE earned run average. But tonight he faces a Boston offense that has scored FORTY FIVE combined runs in 3 days since the stunning announcement that manager John Farrell (cancer treatment) has been forced to step down for the remainder of the campaign. The Red Sox offense is enhanced tonight as a pair of ailing veterans (Pablo Sandavol, Hanley Ramirez) ARE in the starting lineup. Here is a dazzling “40-10” SYSTEM (80-Percent the past five years) which plays ON American League teams like Boston with a slugging percentage on the campaign of “.410 or worse” whose offense in each of the most recent “three” games has tallied 7+ runs each time
Vegas Butcher
Baltimore Orioles -107
The A’s have the 26th ranked offense over the last 30-days (#20 on the year), have the WORST fielding unit in baseball, and have one of the most mediocre BP’s in the league. Clearly the O’s have an advantage in each of these critical factors (#7 offense; #3 fielding unit; #7 BP). So why are the odds so low on the home team? Well, of course due to the starting pitching, as Gray has been a much better starter over the course of the season (2.1 ERA) than Tillman (4.4 ERA). Of course today’s start is not a ‘typical’ one. Gray is coming off a back-injury as he had to miss about a week with it. He should fine today but I doubt he lasts 7-9 innings. I think 6 is probably his cap as there’s really no reason to risk him re-injury his back. Besides, this top-10 Orioles offense won’t make life easy on Gray. In his previous 2 starts @ Baltimore he’s allowed 11 runs and issued 6 BB’s in only 8.2 innings of work. I expect a solid but not a spectacular outing from Gray, as we should see this Oakland BP for at least a third of the game tonight. More importantly, I think Tillman will pitch well today. He’s coming off a disastrous start and only 72 pitches thrown, so should be fresh. But over the last 30-days (including that poor outing) he’s registered a 2.1 ERA with a 53% GB-rate and only a 0.7 HR/9. Oakland’s offense has been atrocious lately and I think Tillman has a shot at a strong outing here. Overall, Baltimore is a better team, they’re at home, and they have about 10-cents of value according to my model. I’ll back them tonight.