Free Picks: Service Plays for Wednesday, August 25,2010

Marc Lawrence

Seattle Mariners at Boston Red Sox
Prediction: Seattle Mariners

Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners meet Jon Lester and the Red Sox in Boston Wednesday afternoon knowing the King has cashed in 10 of his last 15 team starts in August. He's also 3-0 with a 1.23 ERA in his career team starts at Fenway Park. With Lester 0-4 with a 7.71 ERA in his last four home starts, look for the M's to get the cabbage here today.

Tom Freese
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals
Prediction: Chicago Cubs
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Cubs starter Ryan Dempster has won 3 of his last 4 starts allowing just 6 runs total. The Cubs are 7-2 their last 9 road games vs. a team with a losing record. Chicago is 4-0 their last 4 road games and they are 6-0 their last 6 meetings in Washington. The Nats starter Jason Marquis has lost all 6 of his starts this year. The Nationals are 16-44 their last 60 games as underdogs. Washington is 2-7 their last 9 home games and they are 7-19 vs. a team with a losing record.

MTi Sports
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Chicago Cubs at Washington Nationals
Play: Chicago Cubs
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
The Cubs are 6-0 when Ryan Dempster starts when he is off a start in which the bullpen allowed more runs than he did and they lost. The Nationals are 0-6 this season when Jason Marquis starts. Also, Washington is 0-6 when their line is within 20 cents of pickem after a loss and it is the last game of the series.

Cajun Sports

Cincinnati Reds vs. San Francisco Giants
Play: Cincinnati Reds

The Cincinnati Reds are struggling atop the division losing the last two games in this series versus the Giants but the Cardinals failed to make up any ground against the Reds losing 4 to 3 to the Pirates on Tuesday night. Cincinnati is 10-4 as a road underdog in this price range and 23-17 versus left-handed starters. The Reds are also 7-1 their last eight Game 3’s. Cincy will send Homer Bailey to the bump knowing he is 5-0 with a total in this price range and 6-2 following a quality start in his last outing. We will back the Reds here as they grab a victory in Game 3 of this series and attempt to extend their divisional lead over the Cardinals.

PROJECTED FORECAST: 2* Cincinnati Reds 3 San Francisco Giants 2

Rocketman

Chicago Cubs vs. Washington Nationals
Play: Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs have won 3 of their last 4 games overall. Washington has lost 4 of their last 5 games overall. Washington is scoring only 3.9 runs per game at home this year and 3.9 runs per game against right handed starters this season. Ryan Dempster is 11-8 with a 3.56 ERA overall this year and 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA his last 3 starts. Jason Marquis is 0-6 with an 11.39 ERA overall this year, 0-3 with a 20.25 ERA at home this season and 0-3 with a 5.54 ERA his last 3 starts. Chicago Cubs are 7-2 overall at Washington the past 3 years. Dempster is 6-1 with a 3.50 ERA overall vs Washington since 1997. We'll recommend a small play on the Chicago Cubs tonight!

Rob Vinciletti
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
St Louis Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Pirates
Play: St Louis Cardinals
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
The Cardinals fit a 10-2 Road Warrior system that plays on road favorites that lost last night as a road favorite and scored 4 or less runs on 10 or more hits, vs an opponent off a home dog win that also scored 4 or less runs. The Cardinals have taken 6 of the 8 games between the teams this year and have won 10 of 12 as a road favorite in this range. The Pirates have lost 17 of 23 so far in August and are averaging just 2 runs per game over the past week. Look for the Cardinals to bounce back tonight.

BIG AL
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Florida Marlins @ New York Mets
PICK: New York Mets
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Florida will hand the ball to rookie starter Alex Sanabia who only has five Major League starts under his belt. Sanabia pitched well in his last start and earned his second career victory, but that was against the anemic Pittsburgh Pirates, and it was by far his best start of the season. The Mets are finally starting to score some runs as with their six runs on Tuesday night against the Marlins, they have now plated 19 in their last four games. Take the Mets.

DAVID CHAN

Astros @ Phillies
PICK: Over 7.5
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
On the surface, this doesn't seem like a great time to play an over with Roy Halladay on the mound.

Halladay is at the top of his game going 6-0 with a 1.37 ERA during his last six starts. He has a string of 15 scoreless innings going.
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
But there other circumstances that make this a good spot to go over this low total at Citizens Band Park, one of the better hitting parks in the majors.

J.A. Happ is opposing Halladay. The Phillies know their former teammate very well. Happ was dealt to the Astros on July 29 from the Phillies. He has a 4.62 ERA with Houston, although he's pitched well for the Astros.
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Happ, though, isn't a strong enough pitcher to have a total of less than eight attached by his name, especially at such a good hitter's park.

A major factor in taking the over, though, is bullpen fatigue. These teams went 16 innings last night. There were 13 relievers used.
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
The Astros' bullpen went 10 innings. The Phillies' bullpen went nine innings with both closer Brad Lidge and setup man Ryan Madson pitching one inning. It was the second time in two nights Lidge has pitched one inning.

Brian Knight is scheduled to be the home plate umpire. The over has cashed in 30 of the last 56 (53 percent) games Knight has been behind the plate during the last two seasons.
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
The early weather forecast is for temperatures to be in the 70s with a 35 percent chance of rain and very little wind. A rain delay could keep Halladay from possibly pitching a lot of innings.

Jim Feist
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Milwaukee Brewers
Play: Los Angeles Dodgers
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Milwaukee is an excellent pitcher's park, which will help this Dodger offense. LA goes with one of their most reliable starters in Hiroki Kuroda (3.48 ERA), and he has been hot, with a 2.14 ERA his last three starts. Milwaukee has a losing record at home and starter Randy Wolf (4.67 ERA) is no stopper, with a 4.57 ERA at home and a .500 record. Play the LA Dodgers.

Dennis Macklin
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
Arizona Diamondbacks vs. San Diego Padres
Play: San Diego Padres
FOR THE LARGEST SELECTION OF FREE SERVICE PLAYS VISIT THESPREAD.COM
It's tough laying this type of number with a team that doesn't hit all that much in a park that's not real hitter friendly but ... there is no denying that the Padres are the bomb (13-3 L16) in their friendly digs and tonight's starter Wade Leblanc feels right at home in Petco going 2-1 with stingy 2.16 ERA in his L6 home starts. Joe Saunders is 0-3 with a 7.00 in his L3 starts which is even preferable to the DBack pen which may be the worst in MLB history. San Diego definitely worth a flier and should be included in exotics.

Joel Tyson

Your Wednesday night free play is to go with the A's as the road favorite over the Indians.

Oakland blanked Cleveland, 5-0 last night as they have now won 5 of the 7 season series meetings over the Tribe, including 3 of 4 in Cleveland.

The Athletics have a glimmer of hope in tracking down the Rangers in the AL West, and they do have 13 game winner Trevor Cahill on the mound for tonight's contest. Cahill just picked up a win over Tampa Bay his last time out, and should welcome a step down in taking on the 50-75 Tribe.

Cleveland has lost 4 in a row, and 7 of their last 9 at home. The Indians are also just 2-10 the last 12 times they have faced the Atheltics, and starter Mitch Talbot sports a whopping 5.54 ERA this season in his home ball park.

Stick with the better team here, even though you have to lay some juice on the road.

Oakland the call.

4♦ OAKLAND

Chris Jordan

Now on an 8-2 run with MLB free plays, after the Dodgers got it done last night, tonight I'm laying the chalk with the Yankees.

I like the way the Bombers' offense has turned things around this week, proving A-Rod is not the only fuel in this engine. The defending World Series champs have scored 50 runs over their last five victories.

Couple that with the fact they've won the last six starts by starter Phil Hughes, I love my chances laying a cheap price like this.

Last night five in pinstripes blasted home runs into the Rogers Centre's outfield seats, as the Yanks rolled to an 11-5 blowout win.

Hughes has been the beneficiary of a major league-best 7.93 runs of support per start, more than a run better than anyone else, so I would suspect we're going to see plenty of fireworks from this lineup once again.

The right-hander, who is 6-2 with a 2.81 ERA in nine road starts this year, has gone 2-1 with a 3.98 ERA in seven career starts versus the Blue Jays.

I know Brett Cecil is a tough hurler as well, so I'm just listing Hughes in this one. Lay the road chalk.

1♦ N.Y. YANKEES

Stephen Nover

I'm on a 59-40-1 run with my free baseball selections, and tonight I am going with the Diamondbacks-Padres to go Over the total on my Wednesday complimentary selection.

The oddsmaker is giving too much respect to Petco Park by putting out a total this low in a pitching matchup of Joe Saunders versus Wade LeBlanc. This is especially so with the way the Padres have been scoring lately.

The Padres beefed up their offense acquiring Ryan Ludwick and Miguel Tejada at the trade deadline. They've helped San Diego produce at least five runs in eight of their last nine games.

Now the hot-hitting Padres get to tee off on Saunders, who is not in good form, and a Diamondbacks bullpen that is the worst in the National League if not all of baseball.

Saunders started off well for the Diamondbacks after arriving in Arizona in the Dan Haren deal. The National League has figured out the veteran lefty, though. Sanders is 0-3 with a 6.50 ERA in his past three outings. Saunders gave up four runs on eight hits - including two homers - with three walks in six innings during his last start this past Thursday versus Cincinnati. He still threw 114 pitches despite not reaching the seventh inning.

LeBlanc was even worse in his last outing, giving up seven earned runs on seven hits in only 3 1/3 innings this past Friday during a 10-6 road loss to Milwaukee.

These teams have a history of going over at Petco. The over is 5-2-1 the past eight times they've faced each other in San Diego. In fact, five of the last seven games have produced at least 10 runs.

Arizona is easily the top over team in the majors at 74-49. while the Padres are 18-10-1 to the over at home since June.

3♦ ARIZONA/SAN DIEGO OVER

Bobby Maxwell

Nailed my second straight FREE winner on Tuesday with the Rangers and I'm right back on the same series tonight as I go with the Twins to get this one in Texas.

This is a battle of two of the hottest pitchers in the American League and with the Twins already having dropped the first two games of this series, I don’t see them falling for a third time in a row to the Rangers. I’ll play Minnesota behind the left arm of Brian Duensing (7-1, 1.92 ERA).

Duensing is 3-0 in his last three starts with a 1.48 ERA and he’s 3-0 on the highway this season with a 2.42 ERA. On Friday he held the Angels to one run in eight innings of a 7-2 blowout victory. He’s limited his opponents to three runs or less in six straight games and the Twins have won four of his last five. His last road start was in Cleveland on August 8 when he gave up three runs in 7.1 innings of a 5-4 victory over the Indians.

In his lone career start against these Rangers, he held them to one run on three hits over seven innings, striking out eight and walking just one in a 3-2 victory last August.

C.J. Wilson (12-5, 3.02 ERA) goes for Texas tonight and he’s 2-0 in his last three starts with a 1.25 ERA. His lone career outing against the Twins was May 29 this year when he gave up five runs in six innings and got drilled in Minnesota 8-3.

Minnesota is on runs of 21-10 overall, 5-1 on the road against southpaws, 11-1 in the third game of a series, 4-0 when Duensing faces an A.L. West team and 4-1 in his last five starts overall. Texas is on slides of 1-4 on Wednesday, 0-4 against left-handed starters and 3-8 in the third game of a series.

Look for Minnesota to get this win and end its two-game losing streak. Play the Twins with Duensing on the mound.

4♦ MINNESOTA