Big Al
At 6:35pm, on Thursday, our 5* MLB Playoffs Game of the Year is on the Cleveland Indians over the New York Yankees. Everyone will focus on the high-powered offense of the Yankees and the fact that they went 6-0 against the Tribe during the 2007 regular season (hence New York being the favorite here despite the fact that Cleveland has a better record and home field advantage). But what may not be so obvious is that the Yankees did not face Cleveland's best pitcher, tonight's starter lefthander CC Sabathia. In fact, New York has not faced Sabathia since 2004, despite playing Cleveland plenty of times in that span. One of the key reasons why New York should struggle on Thursday is that it is a terrible 5-14 this season on the road vs. lefty starters (minus 15 games on the money line). New York goes with righthander Chien-Ming Wang who has some pretty impressive numbers of late. But if you look at who he's faced in his last four starts, you'll see that three of those were against Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Toronto (all great pitching lines for Wang). But the fourth start was against a postseason team in the Boston Red Sox, and Wang got hammered in that one. Also of concern to Yankee backers has to be his numbers on the road this season. Away from the Bronx, Wang sports a 4.91 ERA and 103 hits in only 88 innings. One more thing to keep an eye on is the performance of Mariano Rivera. Although generally solid down the stretch, Rivera's last call to the mound on September 28 at Baltimore (a classic save situation with a 3-run lead) was a disaster. Rivera gave up three hits and three earned runs and blew the save. Was this just a rare blip on Rivera's normally spotless resume, or a sign of things to come? The wrong team is favored here. Take the Indians. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.
Dr.vegas
Premium Line for Wednesday, October 3
MLB
Angels vs Red Sox OVER
Regular Line Selections for Wednesday, October 3
MLB
Arizona -125 over Cubs
Mike Neri Sports - Late Service
BACK TODAY AFTER 6:35 EST FOR YOUR NEXT UPDATE.
Wednesday October 3, 2007
BASEBALL
Philadelphia w/Hamels -152 Risk 1 Unit to make .65 Units 3:05 EST
Arizona w/Webb -125 Risk 1 Unit to make .80 Units 10:05 EST
OPINIONS: LA Angels w/Lackey, Philadelphia to win the series, Arizona to win the Series