MLB Picks & Predictions for Thursday, April 7, 2011
By Anthony Rome
Bet Nationals vs. Marlins Odds
(The Spread) – The Marlins will send their ace to the hill on Thursday when the host the Nationals at 7:10PM ET.
View Current Baseball Betting Odds
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Marlins –178 on the money line against the Nationals, who are +167. The over/under total for this game is currently set at 7.5 runs.
Josh Johnson will take the mound tonight for Florida after winning his first game of the season against the Mets. He went 6.2 innings while striking out three and walking two in the victory.
He’ll be opposed by John Lannan, who also won his debut in a 6-3 victory over the Braves last week. He lasted just five innings but allowed only one earned run on five hits and strike out three. He also walked one as the Nationals covered as +124 money line underdogs.
MLB Free Pick: Take the under. The under is 4-0 in umpire Bill Welke’s lat four games behind home plate and 4-1-1 in his last six Thursday night games. According to latest MLB trends, the under is also 18-7-3 in Welke’s last 28 games behind the dish in Washington games and 5-0 in the Nationals’ last five games after allowing five runs or more in their previous contest. With Johnson on the mound, runs should be hard to come by for Washington and Lannan should keep the game low-scoring on his end as well.
THURSDAY MLB FREE PICK: NATIONALS/MARLINS UNDER 7.5