Jim Feist
DET Tigers and SD Padres
Take Under
Petco is a huge park, one that is tough to hit in. Detroit comes to town finally getting their pitching in order as lefty Kenny Rogers has been terrific his last 4 starts and relievers Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney are returning to the pen. San Diego lefty Randy Wolf hasn't been very good on the road, but has been outstanding at home. San Diego started 24-13 under the total at home. Don't look for any offense, play the Tigers/Padres under the total!
JB's Computer Plays
Tampa Bay Rays -210 * * *
Milwaukee Brewers -140
Arizona Diamondbacks -150
Chicago Cubs - 140
Best Bet ***
Mr. A's
Houston Astros at Tampa Bay Rays
The Astros have played poorly away from home, dropping ten of their last 12 road games and eight of right-hander Brandon Backe (4-8, 4.99) last 9 road starts. Meanwhile, the Rays have been strong at home. Tampa Bay has won nine of their last 11 games at home and will have Scott Kazmir (6-2, 1.76 ERA) on the mound. The southpaw is 4-0 with a 0.59 ERA in his five home starts. Take Tampa Bay Rays with Kazmir at the helm.
Tampa Bay Rays -210
GINA
Seattle Mariners at Atlanta Braves
Both Seattle and Atlanta are playing below par, but the Mariners' will send right-hander Carlos Silva to the hill. Silva is a nasty, 0-8 with an 8.49 ERA in his last nine starts and the Mariners have lost his last six. The Braves are 11-4 in Hudson's last 15 starts at home. Take the Braves!
Atlanta Braves -185
Baltimore Orioles at Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers have won five of their last six games, five of its last six in Milwaukee and will send Manny Parra to the hill. The lefty has won five straight decisiions, including four starts. He is 4-0 with a 2.49 ERA in his last four starts. The Orioles hasve dropped four of their laas six on the road and counters with Garrett Olson. The left-hander has strugglle in his last two starts and the Orioles are 2-5 in his last 7 starts on the road. Go with Milwaukee at Miller Park.
Milwaukee Brewer - 140
Sports Gambling Hotline
Texas -110 at WASHINGTON
Today, we will back the slugging Texas Rangers to dump Washington once again.
Texas plated 13 run last night, and the Rangers can flat-out rake, something the Nationals can only hope to dream about this season.
Vincente Padilla has gone 6-1 on the road this year, while his counterpart John Lannan is only 1-4 at home for the season with a 5.76 ERA.
Washington has dropped 4 of their last 5 games, and are just 15-22 at home this year, while Texas has a chance to move over .500 for the season with the win this afternoon. Expect it to happen!
Play on the Rangers.
3* TEXAS
Karl Garrett
Florida +150 at OAKLAND
Today an underdog winner for you, as I side with Florida to once again upend Oakland. These teams have split the first 2 meetings this weekend, Oakland taking Friday's game in extra innings, whil Florida was able to edge the A's 6-4 in last night's meeting.
Justin Duchscherer has not lost a home start this year, at 5-0, and has a 1.60 ERA to go along with those wins, but all good things gotta come to an end, and his counterpart Andrew Miller is definitely settling in to his starting role, as his last 2 starts show 14 innings of 1 run ball for a 1-0 mark.
Both teams sport identical 40-34 marks, and both are hoping to make up some ground within their respective divisions, today is the day the Marlins do just that.
Back Florida in the underdog role to head back home with the win.
1* FLORIDA
MATT RIVERS
For Sunday take the Angels in Philadelphia.
Cole Hamels is an absolute star. The lefty is as good as they come and will win a Cy Young at some point. Everytime he goes out to the hill he can dominate and hurl a complete game shutout. he is also backed by an extremely opposing offense led by three unreal players in Rollins, Utley and Howard.
With all of the above praise I still cannot help but back this barking dog in the first place Angels who have already won the first two games and in emphatic fashion. Anaheim is a complete team that is extremely dangerous in every aspect of the game. They have a very very good pitcher themselves tonight in Jered Weaver. The righty should be able to match Hamels for the most part.
Anaheim's offense has never been a bashing offense nor are they nearly as powerful as Charlie Manual's but Vlad is still a stud and guys like Hunter, Matthews, Figgins, Anderson and the rest of Mike Scioscia's club continues to get the job done day after day. These guys play more small ball than today's opponent in the Phils but sometimes stringing together hits and running the bases effectively can best the long ball.
With a quality starter, a very capable offense and the best closer in the game in K-Rod I feel just fine to back this dog. No doubt this is a very difficult situation as Hamels is phenomenal but at this price with a team that could legitimately win the World Series I say why not!
JEFF BENTON
New York's veteran hitters are proving once again that they can't hit pitchers they haven't previously seen. Over the last three games all at home the Yankees have faced San Diego's Josh Banks and Cincinnati's Edinson Volquez and Daryl Thompson and produced a total of four runs, this after scoring 37 runs in their pervious four games. And on Saturday against Thompson, who was making his major-league debut, the Yanks got blanked 6-0!Why do I bring all this up? Because the Reds are running another rookie pitcher to the mound today in Johnny Cueto. No doubt Cueto has hit the skids since bursting on the scene in mid-April. But the hard-throwing right-hander still has filthy stuff, and three of his last four starts have been quality outings. That includes Tuesday's 3-1 home loss to the Dodgers, with Cueto allowing just two runs on five hits in seven innings.Also, even though Yankees starter Andy Pettitte has thrown consecutive gems (one run allowed in 15 innings in wins over the A's and Padres), it?s not like New York has been world-beaters behind the southpaw; they're only 8-7 in his 15 starts this year, including 3-4 at home.
Bottom line: It's not easy for any team to sweep a series in Yankee Stadium, especially a mediocre squad like Cincinnati. But for New York to be a $2.00-plus favorite against a pitcher they've never before seen is ridiculous. Take a shot with the Reds.
2* CINCINNATI REDS
JAKE TIMLIN
Sunday selection is the Texas Rangers.
Looking a series win take the Rangers over the Nationals this afternoon. Simple call really today in our Nations Capital as thanks to the Rangers 13-3 win on Saturday it is clear that Texas has a huge advantage on offense and one that will continue today thanks to facing Lannan who is winless in his last 5 starts thanks to lack of run support. Meanwhile for Texas they turn to Padilla who is rocking with a 9-3 record as the righty has helped his team to a 12-3 record in his 15 starts this year. Flat out while Lannan is a quality starter it?s the Nationals offense that does not give Washington a shot at a win today as I like for the Rangers offense to explode once again giving Texas another easy win.
All Texas!
TONY WESTON
Now, we're looking at some National League action as the Mets play at the Rockies today in a game the Mets will win.
Despite what's happened the first two games of this series, today's matchup will be decided by pitching.
The Mets enter this game with Mike Pelfrey scheduled to take the bump, while the Rockies will turn to Greg Reynolds.
While Pelfrey is only 3-6 tis season with a 4.62 ERA, he has been pretty strong lately.
In his last four starts the Mets are 3-1, while he is only 1-0 with three no decisions. Surprisingly, it was his last start that he had his worst outing of the four games, giving up six earned runs in six innings of work. However, Pelfrey still earned the win as the Mets beat the Angels 9-6.
In Pelfrey's three starts before that June 16 win against the Angels, he had allowed only four earned runs in 21 innings of work, striking out 15.
His counterpart hasn't been as strong as Reynolds comes into this game 2-3 his last five starts and has allowed 21 earned runs in 24 innings of work.
Look for the Mets to light up Reynolds and hand the Rockies a loss in this series finale.
Go with New York on the road.
3* METS
ARMVIN SPORTS
ASTROS/RAYS Over 8.5
WHITE SOX +122
VEGAS SPORTS PICS
Pittsburgh +105*
Texas -110**
San Diego +110*
Chicago Cubs -130**
Carlo Campanella
Game: Detroit Tigers at San Diego Padres
Prediction: San Diego Padres
Padres find themselves in the home Dog role on Sunday afternoon as they host Detroit starting Verlander. At 3-9, Verlander is NOT pitching like he was last year and the better pitcher is "hidden" in this match-up...SD sends Randy Wolf to the mound and at first glance he's not much better at 5-5. However, he's an AWESOME 4-1 at home this season and we find him at a PERFECT 9-0 at home when facing a team playing below the .500 Win Percentage the past 2 seasons.
7* Play On San Diego
TOM FREESE
Cleveland vs. Los Angeles
Cleveland is 13-3 with Paul Byrd on the mound if they scored 5 or more runs in their last game and they are 15-7 overall after scoring 5 or more runs in their last game. The Indians are 17-5 vs. NL West teams. Los Angeles is 14-38 their last 52 Interleague games and they are 5-16 vs. NL Central teams. The Dodgers 0-7 their last 7 Interleague games vs. losing teams and they are 1-4 in the last 5 starts made by Chad Billingsley.
PLAY ON CLEVELAND +
Matt Fargo
Arizona D-Backs vs. Minnesota Twins
Play: Minnesota Twins
Minnesota has won five straight games to pull within 2.5 games of the White Sox in the American League Central. At 8-2 over their last 10 games, the Twins are tied for the best 10-game stretch in the league and yet are getting a great price at home. They are eight games over .500 at home and that is due to great hitting and solid pitching. Minnesota is hitting .277 at home, 5th best in the American League while the pitching has posted a 3.38 ERA, 5th best as well.
Since May 20th, Arizona is a dismal 11-20 over its last 31 games including losses in the first two games in this series. The pitching has been poor recently as the ERA of the staff over the last 10 games is 5.86 and it has been especially horrific of late as it has allowed 50 runs over the last seven games, not surprisingly five of those being losses. The offense is not doing much to help as it has averaged just three rpg over the last eight games and it has scored three runs or fewer in 13 of the last 18 games.
Brandon Webb has not been the same pitcher that started the season 9-0 and it is not just due to his recent last of quality starts. His velocity has been down and that is a big cause for concern. He is coming off his worst outing of the season as he allowed seven runs in just 3.1 innings against the A’s. After a poor outing against the Braves last month, he followed that up with a shutout in his next outing but he is not in the same form right now. Arizona is just 2-4 in his last six starts including 1-3 on the road where the Diamondbacks have lost by a combined score of 15-7.
Livan Hernandez had gone through one of the worst stretches of his career prior to his last outing. He allowed five runs or more in five straight starts before putting together a quality outing in his last game, allowing just one run in seven innings against Washington. To his credit, only two of those bad games were at home and they came against the Yankees and Rangers, two potent offenses. As stated earlier, Arizona does not fall into that category. He is 4-0 with a 1.95 ERA in his last four against his former team. Play Minnesota Twins 1.5 Units