Jrtips
SEATTLE vs. COLORADO
The Colorado Rockies look to ride the momentum from their longest road winning streak as they go for their ninth straight victory tonight in the opener of a three-game interleague series against the Seattle Mariners.Colorado (28-32) finished an 11-game road trip with eight straight wins and will put their winning streak on the line at Coors Field, where they're 9-14. The Rockies are 9-13 against Seattle (30-30) who has won four of five after defeating Baltimore 6-3 on Thursday night. Seattle will go with starter Jarrod Washburn (3-4, 3.07 ERA), who's winless over his last three starts despite allowing two runs over 19 innings. Washburn held Minnesota to one run in six innings in a 2-1 victory Saturday but the Mariners had dropped the left-hander's previous seven starts even though Washburn had a solid 3.95 ERA in that stretch. Washburn is 1-0 with a 3.15 ERA in four games and three starts against Colorado.Ubaldo Jimenez (4-6, 3.91) will take the ball for the Rockies. The right-hander has delivered seven quality starts in his last eight outings, including a 7-2 win at St. Louis on Sunday in which he held the Cardinals to two runs and four hits while striking out nine in eight innings.Jimenez, who's 2-2 with a 4.38 ERA at Coors Field. Both of these pitchers have been solid all year and over their last 14 starts combined, these starting pitchers are giving up lees than 3 run per game.
TAKE UNDER 9 RUNS
LARRY NESS
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Texas Rangers
PICK: Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers have played without the suspended Manny Ramirez since May 7, but LA still owns MLB's best record (40-21) and the biggest division lead of any team (Giants are eight games back). The Rangers have been a major surprise in 2009 and despite losing six of their last 10 games, are 34-25, 4 1/2 games clear of the Mariners and the Angels in the AL West. However, Josh Hamilton is on the DL and it's beginning to take its toll. Texas did edge Toronto 1-0 on Thursday, avoiding being swept in a rain-shortened three-game series. However, Thursday's only run was driven in by a sacrifice fly and it's hard to ignore that the Rangers scored only four runs in three games vs the Blue Jays, while batting .176 as a team. Scoring against LA's Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 1.62 ERA) won't be easy. He was the team's Opening Day starter but then spent two months on the DL with an oblique strain. Kuroda has given up just two ERs and five hits over 11 innings in two starts since his return and I see him giving the Texas lineup all it wants, tonight. The Rangers will counter with Vicente Padilla, who is 4-3 with a 5.22 ERA. He has given up three ERs or less in five of his last six starts but let's remember that the Dodgers lead all of MLB with a .280 team BA and are averaging an excellent 5.28 RPG on the road. Let's also not forget Padilla's 5.22 ERA or the 4.83 ERA of the Texas bullpen (ranks 27 of 30 teams). I'd be making the Dodgers a bigger play but I'm a little worried about the team's terrible interleague mark recently, especially LA's 5-28 record in AL parks since 2005. However, I believe that's "old news," as this team has made me a believer. Take the Dodgers.
Mike Rose
Pittsburgh Penguins +1.5 -180
To see the reason that the Penguins are one step from the Stanley Cup, look no further than G Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury was absolutely miserable in a 5-0 defeat in Detroit in Game 5 of this series, but he rebounded with an absolutely dominant Game 6, stopping 25 of 26 shots. Would anyone believe that the Pens would be in this spot without any legitimate contributions from C Sidney Crosby? Pittsburghs top superstar has been held to one goal and two assists in the six games of this series, a far cry from the 28 points he had in the first three rounds of the playoffs. Fellow C Evgeni Malkin hasnt done much to write home about either, as he only has two goals and four assists, but he hasnt reached the stat sheet since Game 4. He had a whopping 29 points coming into this series, but will probably need to add to the 35 he has now if he is going to be able to call himself a champion.
The stars for the Red Wings havent really been shining either. Yes, C Pavel Datsyuk recorded two assists in Game 5 after missing the first four games of this series, but he is still goalless in the series and largely hasnt had a huge presence on the ice. C Johan Franzen only has a pair of goals and a pair of assists in this series, while LW Henrik Zetterberg only has one more assist than Franzen does. RW Marian Hossa only has a pair of assists against the Penguins as well, and he hasnt scored a goal since Game 6 of the Chicago series. Dont blame the Game 6 loss on G Chris Osgood, though. Osgood stopped 29 of 31 shots, marking his second straight very solid game. If the Wings are lifting the Cup tonight, he'll have to have yet another huge game.
You know that home-ice advantage is going to be tremendous in Detroit, which is why the odds are so skewed in favor of the hosts. Detroit hasnt been good enough in this series to warrant almost 1-3 odds though. Take the goal and a half with the Penguins, viewing it as tremendous value. Game 6 was the only one-goal game in this series. Weve yet to see an OT game, though. The hockey world deserves the Cup to be lifted after three or four extra sessions tonight, as this has been a fantastic series and a tremendous postseason.
Randall the Handle
Boston –1½ +1.32 over PHILADELPHIA
This is about the worst possible pitching match-up for the Phillies. This is like comparing the speed of Jose Reyes to Brad Penny. This is like comparing Charlize Theron to Rosie O’Donnell. Jon Lester is firing nothing but BB’s these days. In fact, there is not a pitcher in the league that looks sharper or has more confidence right now than Lester, period. He’s been virtually un-hittable in two straight games and is hitting every spot he wants with relative ease. The Red Sox are feeling great after a sweep of the hated Yankees and they’ll come in here feeling even better with Lester on the mound. The Phillies are just 12-14 at home and with Joe Blanton on the hill the chances of being 12-15 are great. Pay no attention to Blanton’s impressive numbers of his last three games, as he faced the Marlins followed by games in San Diego and Los Angeles. The fact that he’s had three good games in a row makes him even less appealing, especially at home where he’s 1-2 with a 6.73 ERA and a .311 BAA. Blanton has average stuff at best and is one of the more hittable pitchers in the business. The AL vs NL angle comes into play, as does the huge gap in talent between Lester and Blanton. Red Sox should absolutely crush Blanton and cruise to an easy win. Play: Boston –1½ +1.32 (Risking 2 units).
CLEVELAND -½ +1.12 over St. Louis (1st 5 innings)
Joel Pineiro throws strikes but that’s about all he does. He puts the ball in play, rarely striking out anyone and with the way the Tribe are seeing the ball these days they should get to him early and often. Pineiro has thrown 34.2 innings on the road, allowing 48 hits for a BAA of .338. His road ERA is 5.45 and that’s after pitching at Arizona, Atlanta, Washington, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and San Fran, arguably six of the weakest offensive teams in the league. The Indians had a tough game last night but ended up beating the Royals with Greinke on the mound and that has to feel pretty good. The Indians have now won two series in a row and four of six and they’ve scored six runs or more in four of its last eight. David Huff does not have good numbers at all but numbers can be misleading especially when you consider he’s only pitched 20 innings thus far. He was rocked in his first two starts and his ERA was 17.55 at that point. He has since lowered it to 8.71 and in his only home start he went four innings against the Rays and didn’t allow a single run. He was also effective in his last start at Chicago, allowing four hits and three runs in five full innings. I’ve watched him pitch twice already and I like his stuff. He definitely has upside. As a minor-leaguer his 2.52 ERA led all Indians Minor Leaguers and 143 strikeouts ranked second. Following an exceptional season in ‘08, Huff was selected as the Bob Feller Award winner as the Indians' top Minor League pitcher. This pick is based more on going against Pineiro and therefore I’ll play it in five innings. Play: Cleveland -½ +1.12 in the first five innings (Risking 2 units).
Detroit –1½ +1.26 over PITTSBURGH
It’s almost like the Pirates know they’re going to lose. They’ve won just 16 of its last 55 inter-league games and Ian Snell is 0-2 with a 10.29 ERA in his last three inter-league games. In fact, Snell hasn’t won a game in about eight weeks. Since defeating Atlanta on April 18, Snell has gone 0-4 with a 6.00 ERA in his last nine starts. The Pirates are about to find out that the Tigers aren’t the weak-hitting Braves or Astros. Offensively, the Tigers have a huge edge here and that’s all there is to it. These strong AL teams almost always beat up on weak NL teams and this one shouldn’t be any different. This isn’t the only Pittsburgh/Detroit match-up of the night and has far less interest in Steel Town.
Play: Detroit –1½ +1.26 (Risking 2 units).
Put this up Due to 9 Runs Over / Under
Free Selection from Arthur Ralph Sports
277 - 180 run 60 % 21-9 run here
FRI Boston Red Sox
8)