JrTIPS
LA DODGERS vs. CHICAGO CUBS
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the highest-scoring team in the NL, but their offense has done next to nothing since arriving at Wrigley Field. Los Angeles (34-17) has been held to three in this series. Chicago (25-23) has gotten seven innings from each starter in this series.The Dodgers have struck out 21 times while drawing just 10 walks in the series and they will have to face Sean Marshall (3-3, 3.70 ERA), who will get the ball for his eighth start of the year with the Cubs. He pitched all five innings in a rain-shortened 6-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Tuesday, giving up four hits while striking out six. The left-hander will make his third career start versus the Dodgers. He is 0-0 with a 5.19 ERA in the first two. Promoted from Triple-A Albuquerque on May 14th, the Dodgers Milton won his last outing Tuesday at Colorado by yielding one run in five innings in a 7-1 victory.The veteran left-hander is 3-1 with a 6.70 ERA in eight career starts at Wrigley Field, where he hasn't pitched since 2006. Alfonso Soriano is 6 for 12 in his career versus the southpawbut the slumping Soriano is 6 for 45 (.133) with 17 strikeouts in his last 11 games. Both these teams are struggling with their offense and it will be tough to break out against these two savy starting pitchers today.
TAKE OVER 7 1/2 RUNS
Mr. A
Pittsburgh Pirates -135
Texas Rangers -160
MLB Computer Picks
New York Mets -140
Kansas City Royals -170
Seattle Mariners +160
VEGAS EXPERTS
Detroit Tigers at Baltimore Orioles
The Tigers have cleaned up in day games this year (13-4) and are now 11 games over .500 this season when not play on artificial turf. We don't know what it is, but Sunday has been an unmitigated disaster for the Orioles, who have lost an astounding 27 of their last 32 on this day. Detroit's Edwin Jackson may not have the record to show for it, but he has pitched very well this season, including a 1.62 ERA over five road starts.
Play on: Detroit
Tom Freese Blue Line
Detroit at Baltimore
Detroit is 10-2 their last 12 games as favorites and they are they are 9-3 vs. a starter with a WHIP of over 1.30. Starting pitcher Edwin Jackson has allowed just 8 runs total in his last 4 starts. The Tigers are 6-1 their last 7 Sunday games. Baltimore starter Jason Berken is off his first ever win in his last start. He figures to be flat in this start. The Orioles are 15-37 vs. winning teams. PLAY ON DETROIT - (Jackson vs. Berken)
Bryan Leonard
3* Detroit at Baltimore
Host will send out rookie Jason Berken to make his second career start. He gained the victory earlier in the week when he limited Toronto to 2 runs in 5 innings of work. Since the Tigers have never faced him the young righty will have a distinct advantage early on today.
Detroit sends Edwin Jackson to the hill looking to continue his season to date success. He will be taking on a Baltimore squad which has really hit him well as of late. Last year while with the Rays Jackson took on the O's twice allowing a .341 batting average and 9 runs scored. In 2007 it was more of the same with a .467 batting average, .800 slugging percentage and 6 of 15 batters faced crossing the plate.
The Orioles have a talented group of youngsters now making their way to the majors and the fans are starting to believe. We expect that positive energy to carry over today as Baltimore wins the series.
PLAY BALTIMORE
Jimmy The Moose
Cincinnati Reds at Milwaukee Brewers
Prediction: Over
The Reds have played over the total in 8 of their last 10 divisional games. The over is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a dog. The Reds have played over the total in 7 of their last 10 games vs. a team with a winning record. The over over is 7-1 when Owings has been on the mound fpr the Reds. The over is 13-3 in Milwaukee's last 16 games following a win. Milwaukee's bats have pop and they'll take advantage of Owings today. The teams have played over the total in 4 of their last 5 meetings. Play the over.
Matt Rivers
For Sunday lay a run and a half with the Greinke's.
John Danks is a quality pitcher that could definitely hold his own today against the mediocre Royals and the White Sox have picked things up of late but with that said Zach Greinke is God right now and until he shows any other side I will back him today. Plus it seems as if his teammates score a ton of runs for him when he's on the mound every single time, save that 1-0 loss in Anaheim.
At some point this insane under 1 ERA run of Greinke's has got to come to an end as it is just impossible to continue. The righthander will get hit give up some runs before the season is out but until that happens I will roll with what is the baseball version of gold.
Chicago did just take that series in Anaheim and won going away on Friday night here so I do respect how Ozzie Guillen's boys have come alive. But this task should be too tall as Greinke right now is on a level that few have ever been on and I mean ever. Look for Thome, Dye, Konerko and the suddenly surging Sox to come back down to Earth a bit and lose this thing something like 4-1.
Both pitchers should put up their share of gooseggs but in the egg Greinke will put up a few more and that should be the difference.
Jake Timlin
In another easy Run Line selection today I love the Royals behind Greinke today. Yes flat out dominate this season I look for Zach Greinke to continue his lopsided winning ways today as he beats the White Sox for the third time this season. You see for Greinke in 8 of his 9 games that has featured an ERA of just 0.88 two of his wins eight wins have come against the White Sox with wins of 2-0 at Chicago and a 3-0 complete game win at home just a few weeks ago. Thanks to the pair of shutouts it’s Greinke who is working on 15 scoreless innings and four straight wins against the White Sox. Meanwhile, speaking of the White Sox despite their recent upswing in the standing they are still a losing team on the road at 11-15 as will stay that way today as they turn to Danks who at 5-4 this year has been a major disappointment. So backed by the best pitcher in all of baseball right now I look for another lopsided game from the Royals behind Greinke today
PICK: Kansas City Royals -1 ½
Tony Weston
Today's Selection:
We come through with a solid win yesterday as the Rays take care of business. We’re making it two in a row today as we’re taking the Under on the Angels-Mariners games in Anaheim.
The Total for this game is set at around 9 runs, depending on where you’re playing this and these two will fall short of that Total.
Consider that in the first two games of this series the Under has been the smart play and over their last four meetings the Under has come in each time, as these teams have totaled, on average, 4 1/2 runs per.
Keep in mind, too, the Mariners have seen the Under go 9-1 their last 10 games, while the Angels have seen the Under come in 7 of their last 10 games overall. Also, the Under has come in 6 of the last 8 meetings these two have played in Anaheim.
Today, the Under will come in once again as these two play a low-scoring game in Anaheim. Take the Under on this one today.
3♦ ANGELS-MARINERS UNDER
Craig Davis
Our free play run hasn't been good recently, but we've still nailed 8 of the last 13 and I'm going to make it 9 of the last 14 today with the NY Yankees. Yes, I'm aware that Philip Hughes' season ERA is over 5 and I'm aware that he was only brought up into the rotation because Chein-Ming Wang was absolutely horrendous, but I've seen what Hughes is capable of on his good days and twice this season he has pitched at least seven innings of shutout ball. And with the history of New York owning the Cleveland Indians, it's no wonder Hughes is still the favorite today. That's okay by me... I'm expecting the offense to continue to dominate as it has been in this recent winning streak. Clevaland counters with the aged Carl Pavano and is plus 5 ERA today, and I'm just not feeling him. The Yankees have won 13 of their last 16 as a favorite and 16 of their last 21 overall. Today, the Yanks make it 17 of 22 as they beat the Cleveland Indians yet again.
2♦ NY YANKEES
Michael Cannon
San Diego +130 at COLORADO
A winner with the Yankees on the run line yesterday improves my record to 25-16-1 with my last 42 overall free plays!
Today’s play is a general principle play. What I mean by that is this price is way out of whack and I’m siding with the underdog based on the fact the favorite has no business being priced this high.
I’m talking about the San Diego-Colorado game and I’m taking the Padres.
Look, I know the Padres are not a good baseball team but the Rockies haven’t impressed me either and their play got manager Clint Hurdle fired. This is the same man who guided Colorado to the 2007 NL pennant.
Jorge De La Rosa will start for Colordao and he’s winless on the season with a 5.26 ERA. Despite those numbers Vegas is asking you to lay around -150 to back this clown over the Padres today.
Sorry, but I’ll side with the dog regardless of who it is.
The fact it’s the Padres doesn’t worry me all that much because Colorado hasn’t swept a series from them in over six years.
Take the Padres as the road dog for the win.
3♦ SAN DIEGO
Chris Jordan
Boston at TORONTO +110
Breaking pattern here for the Red Sox here, as I don’t believe there will be any skid-saving heroics here. The boys from Beantown avoided being swept and losing three in a row by knocking off the Mets. They went to Minnesota and after winning the series opener, lost two straight before avoiding a three-game slide to win the series-closer. Here we are again with the BoSox on a two-game slide, and I just don’t think there’s anything left in the tank.
Today marks their seventh straight game in as many days, and there’s that dastardly 2-4 slump they’re mired in right now. Since posting that 6-5 win against the Twins, the Red Sox have had trouble putting runs on the board, scoring no more than three runs the past five outings, averaging 2.6 runs per game.
I mention all this because the Red Sox came into this series staring at an AL East rival that had lost nine straight – beginning with a three-game skid at Fenway Park. Maybe it’s the Rogers Centre, since the Red Sox have lost 10 of their last 14 there. Maybe it’s the road in general, as the Sox are 11-16 while ordering room service.
We have a quality pitcher in Ricky Romero going for us today, as he’s 2-0 in as many home starts and totes a 1.38 ERA to go along with it. And though Boston is 8-2 in Jon Lester’s last 10 Sunday starts, the southpaw is 1-3 on the highway with a 7.04 ERA. And in Toronto, his last two times there, he’s given up 12 earned runs over just nine innings of work.
I’ll take the Blue Jays in this one, as they’re the value play.
1♦ BLUE JAYS
JR O'Donnell
St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants
Play Over 7½
The A Pujols lead Cards will be Light'n Up J Sanchez today & his close to 5.00 (E.R.A) We feel he gets rocked today @ home as we note he went 1-3 last 4 & held a lofty 5.35 E.R.A in those outings. ((OVER)) gets the call!
JACK JONES
Boston/Toronto Under 9.5
The Red Sox offense is only putting up 3 runs per game over their last seven and then there is Toronto only scoring 3.4 over their last seven. Neither offense is clicking and there should be some decent pitching today. Ricky Romero has a 1.38 ERA at home this year while Jon Lester has struggled this season, but he just pitched a gem against the Blue Jays a little over a week ago when he gave up just a single run in 6.3 innings. I think runs will probably be hard to come by today.
John Ryan
Seattle Mariners vs. LAA Angels
Play: LAA Angels
Ai Simulator 3* graded play on Anaheim as the host Seattle slated to start at 3:35 EST. Supporting this graded play is a strong system that has posted a 76-29 making 34.9 units since 2003. Play against road dogs with a money line of +100 or higher and is a poor AL hitting team batting =4.50 in May games. Seattle is a weak 44-80 (-32.6 Units) against the money line versus good fielding teams averaging <=0.6 errors/game over the last 2 seasons; 10-30 (-18.3 Units) against the money line on the road when the total is 9 to 9.5 over the last 2 seasons. Anaheim starter Santana is a solid 31-14 (+15.4 Units) against the money line versus teams whose hitters strike out 6 or less times/game since 1997. Seattle ranks dead last in offensive production by nearly all of categories and sport a -.67 runs per game differential. if not for their good starting pitching and defense that differential would be at least -1 per game. Anaheim starter Santana has been struggling this season, but facing an anemic offense is just the right remedy to get things moving in the positive direction. Take Anaheim.