Johnny Guild
Detroit Pistons at Boston Celtics
The odds makers have set the Celtics as a 4-point home favorite in Game 2 tonight.
Take Boston with a reasonable spread. They should have no problem on their home court, especially with Detroits team captain Chauncey Billups not fit. The Pistons are 2-5 ATS against Boston and 1-7 ATS in their last 8 games as an underdog.
Boston Celtics - 4
Gina
Detroit Pistons at Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics know tonight's battle is vital. They need a Game 2 victory at home to take a 2-0 lead in this series before traveling to Motown. Boston is winless on the road thus far in the postseason. Go with the Celtics tonight at the Garden. Boston is 12-3 straight-up and against the spread in their last 15 home games and 5-2 ATS in the last 7 meetings against Detroit.
Boston Celtics
MLB
Philadelphia Phillies at Houston Astros
Go with the Astros tonight at Minute Maid Park with their ace Roy Oswalt on the hill. The Astros have won 10 of their last 12 games at home and right-hander Roy Oswalt is 6-1 with a 2.79 ERA in nine appearances, including seven starts against the Phillies. Houston has won Oswalt's last 6 starts versus the Phillies.
Houston Astros - 130
GAMEDAY SPORTS NETWORK
Baltimore/NY Yankees OVER 9.5
SportsAction365
LA Angels/Toronto OVER 8
Frank Patron
White Sox
Donald Tran
Orioles
Jennifer Barry
LA Angels
Chad Jordan
Astros
JeffMoney
Celtics -4 (pod)
Orioles +145
Angles +110
Indians -120
Larry Ness
Eastern Confrence GOY 20* Boston Celtics
Oddsmaker's Error MLB Pirates
Vegas Insider Capping
10 Units Chicago White Sox
10 Units Atlanta Braves
10 Units NY Mets Over
10 Units San Diego Padres
Stan Sharp Triple Play Goy
Bos/Det Over
THE SILVER FOX
THURSDAY'S 2* PLAY
2* METS
Best Sports Picks
Celtics -4
MONEY LOCK OF THE DAY
DIGGER'S PICK
Brewers/Pirates Over 9
JUNIOR'S PICK
Tigers -170
Doc's Sports
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Houston Astros
Play: Under
This is the opening of this four game series between two contending teams in their respective divisions. Both of the pitchers have been better of last with Oswalt 4-1 in his last seven starts and Kendrick 2-0 in his last six starts with the Phillies going 5-1 in those outings. We will not worry about who wins this evenly matched game and just collect with the under. Doc’s Sports has a strong card going on Thursday and wants you aboard for the winning action.
Larry Ness
New York Mets @ Atlanta Braves
PICK: New York Mets
REASON FOR PICK: The Braves won easily over the Mets last night (11-4), upping their ML-best home mark to 19-5 (Braves are a ML-worst 6-16 on the road). With the loss, the Mets fell to .500 (22-22) and unlike last year when they were 47-34 (plus-$1,193) which made them MLB's biggest "money-makers" on the road, the New Yorkers are just 10-13 (minus-$450) away from Shea Stadium this year. However, let's note that the Mets are averaging 5.04 RPG on the road, which bodes well with Johan Santana on the mound. Santana was booed off the mound back on April 12 in a home start against the Brewers, after allowing five runs (four earned) in a 5-3 loss. Santana hasn't lost since that game though, going 4-0 with a 3.43 ERA in six starts, all New York wins. Tim Hudson gets the call for Atlanta and while he's always been known as an excellent home pitcher (with both Oakland and Atlanta), he is coming off his worst start of the season, allowing five runs (all earned) in the first three innings last Saturday to his ex-team the A's (lasted five innings in a 5-4 loss). I'm going with a 'feel' here and calling for Santana to "come up big" for the Mets. The Braves have struggled vs lefties this year, going 8-10 while averaging only 3.8 RPG. The last time I looked, Santana was a pretty good lefty. Take the Mets.
Dave Malinsky 4*
Cleveland Indians @ Chicago White Sox
PICK: Chicago White Sox
If we wait patiently, sometimes the marketplace just hands one to us. That is the case here. The chance to back a sizzling White Sox team that has won a Major League high of seven straight games against the slumping Indians in an underdog price range is too good to pass up.
Bucking Cleveland is nothing new for us, of course. Over the past week we have been involved with either an Under or a Side/Run Line play six times in large part against the Indian offense, cashing five of them, including two that carried 6* Ratings. The Tribe are 14th in the A.L. in batting average; 14th in hits; 9th in doubles; 14th in triples; and 10th in home runs. They try to write some of that off as “slumps” for the likes of Travis Hafner (his .222 with diminished power looks more like a continued career slide than anything temporary) and Victor Martinez (no home runs in 134 at-bats), but that may be overly optimistic thinking. The bottom line is that the middle of the lineup is not packing anywhere near the punch that they had hoped for, and that the bottom of the order lacks the talent to produce anyway. So how do they get to be favored here? Call it a “Tale of Two Pitchers”, but we can anticipate a Dickensian plot twist ahead.
Aaron Laffey brings a solid 1.35 ERA over his first four starts, and it is hard to find fault anywhere in the numbers. But there is a major hole there - all four games came at home, and they were against the punchless Athletics, Royals, Blue Jays and a Yankee team that has been woeful against left-handers without A Rod and Posada. He almost could not have picked a better set of teams to work against. Now he takes to the road for the first time, and not only will that turn his form around, but a struggling Cleveland bullpen is anything but an automatic to perform well in the latter stages.
Meanwhile Mark Buehrle earns an underdog role off of a 2-5/5.27 opening to the season, but we are not alarmed by those numbers at all. After a 3.63 of LY that would appear to be quite a drop, but we see it more as one of those swinging pendulums that can happen in a short baseball cycle. In 2007 Buehrle allowed .99 Home Runs-Per-9, which is down to .82 this season. And a guy that relies on throwing strikes is doing that again, with a 2.47 Walks-Per-9. Nothing alarming there. His problem has been a .360 BABIP (“Batting Average in Balls in Play”), and of the 109 pitchers that have worked at least 45 innings this season, only two rate worse. That is a number that will correct over the course of the summer, and we are buying in at the best possible value time to take advantage of that. With Buerhle off of a solid win at San Francisco in his last outing, and with that rock-solid tandem of Scott Linebrink (1.35 with 12 holds) and Bobby Jenks (1.86 with 11 saves) to handle the latter stages, the punchless Indians can be stopped cold again.
Jeff Alexander Sports
1 Unit on Reds/Padres UNDER 7
Oddsmakers are looking for bettors to bite on the over with this line but we won't as this game is being played in the pitcher friendly confines of the Padres. The Under is 4-0 in Wolf's last 4 starts vs. a team with a losing record, 12-4 in the Padres last 16 home games, and 7-0 in the Padres last 7 after allowing 5 runs or more in their previous game. The Under is 6-0 in Harang's last 6 starts with the total set at 7.0-8.5, 11-4 in Harang's last 15 starts vs. the National League West, and 7-1 in the Reds last 8 Thursday games. The Reds have been terrible on the road and the Padres can't hit. Looks like a solid unders spot and based on this line, oddsmakers feel the same.
The Hitman Guaranteed Selections
5000 LARGE BASEBALL WINNER
TEXAS w/Padilla -110