Great Lakes Sports
New York Mets
The New York Mets has a very solid 85-67 record this years, and is a strong 38-28 vs division opponents this year. The New York Mets is also 85-67 when playing on grass this year, and they are 24-12 when playing a team with a losing record the second half of the season. We look for the New York Mets to roll over the Washington Nationals in this National League Divisional showdown for the road win tonight.
Brad Diamond Sports
Pittsburgh Pirates
Going into Thursday the Houston Astros are 0-4 since the Ike disaster hit the state of Texas. In addition, Pittsburgh is 5 of 6 with RHP Snell on the hill versus the deflated visitor. So, there is a solid lean to the Bucs tonight. Finally, in others games, there appears to be no reason for the Nationals (“the dark side of the force”) to be emotionally invested versus the Padres who insert Jake Peavy on the hill. Take the Padres. Lastly, one game that could be a major trap is the Dodgers and Giants battle. With lefty Barry Zito hurling for the Giants you can fully expect the public (check the prohibitive line) to back the Dodgers. However, having the chance to catch the LA and Pittsburgh encounter Thursday, it was noted that Joe Torre is starting to rest certain players without much advance warning, if you catch my inference.
Michael Cannon
Philadelphia at FLORIDA +115
Take the Marlins as the home dog tonight.
Josh Johnson gets the start for Florida and he’s had a successful return this season after an arm injury cut his 2007 campaign short.
The right-hander is 5-1 with a 3.30 ERA on the year and he’s recorded 70 strikeouts in 76 1-3 innings. Johnson is 2-1 with a 3.62 ERA in four career games against Philadelphia, including 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in two games this year.
The Phillies will counter with Brett Myers, who is 10-11 with a 4.06 ERA on the season. The right-hander is 6-9 with a 5.04 ERA in 21 career games against the Marlins, including 1-2 with a 5.23 ERA in three games this year.
The Phillies are rolling, but that just gives us more value with the better pitcher here.
Take the Marlins as they grab the home win.
3♦ FLORIDA
Drew Gordon
Arizona at COLORADO -115
In case you've been living under a rock, Arizona has been a disaster on the highway, losers of 10 straight and counting! As they desperately cling to their small hopes of catching the Dodgers, the last thing they need is a road series with a motivated spoiler like the Rockies. Its no secret the D-Backs are 5-1 at Coors this season, and Colorado would like nothing more than to reverse that trend when it matters most for Arizona!
Although rookie Max Scherzer pitched well in his last start, it was at home, against a Reds team that threw in the towel a long time ago. In the start prior, he was decent at the Dodgers, but nowhere near as good. Look for the rook to run into trouble tonight on the road, as the Rockies have started to hit again, and average a solid 4.5 runs per game against righties at Coors.
Opposing Scherzer is the Rockies lefty Jorge De La Rosa, who's been solid at home this season, going 5-2 with a 4.93 ERA. His last two home starts have been sub-par, but look for him to rebound nicely against a soft-hitting Arizona offense. In his first start of the month he tossed 7 scoreless vs the Giants, and I expect an effort more like that one against an extremely road-weary D-Backs club tonight.
Bottom line, paybacks a bitch, and that's exactly what Arizona gets tonight, as the Rockies make it their business to spoil whatever chances their division rival has in making the postseason. Starting a rookie on the road, in a critical situation, is a dangerous propostion for the D-Backs, one that will come back to bite them in the end. Look for the Rockies to hand the D-Backs their 11th straight road loss Friday!
Take Colorado behind De La Rosa over Arizona and Scherzer in this MLB match up.
2♦ COLORADO
Karl Garrett
Philadelphia -135 at FLORIDA
Tonight I lay the road juice with the Phillies as they take on Florida.
Should be a good one, as Florida has won their last 8 games, while the Phils have captured their last 7!
The difference tonight is on the mound, as the G-Man has been highly impressed with what Brett Myers has been able to do since coming back up from a mid-season minor league send down.
Myers has ripped off wins in 4 of his last 5 starts, allowing just 7 earned runs in his last 38-plus innings of work. Better still, the Phils are 8-2 the last 10 times Myers has started.
Florida starter Johnson has been pitching well, and he is 1-0 in his 2 starts against Philly this season, with 2 runs allowed in 13 innings of work.
Still, the G-Man thinks Philadelphia will figure him out tonight.
Phils extend their winning streak to 8 straight, and snap the Marlins 8 game win streak in the process.
3♦ PHILADELPHIA
Jeff Benton
Can’t quite figure out why the DBacks are slight underdogs in this game. They’ve completely owned the Rockies this season, winning 10 of 12 meetings, including five of six in Colorado. They’re in a playoff chase, while the Rockies are playing out the string. And they have the better pitcher on the mound tonight in Max Scherzer (2.80 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) against Colorado’s Jorge De La Rosa (5.38 ERA, 1.53 WHIP).
True, Arizona is winless in Scherzer’s first five major-league starts, but it’s certainly not the kid’s fault. Including relief appearances, he’s given up 17 runs (14 earned) in 45 innings, and the fireballing right-hander has an impressive 54-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio this year. In Sunday’s start against the Reds, Scherzer gave up just one run and two hits over six innings, walking three and whiffing nine, but the DBacks fell 2-1, continuing a trend of being unable to give Scherzer any run support (they’ve tallied 12 runs in his five starts).
Well, I don’t think the Snakes will have much trouble scoring runs tonight. DeLaRosa has given up four in each of his last two starts (losses to the Astros and Dodgers at home), and in his one start against Arizona this year, DeLaRosa allowed four runs in 4 2/3 innings of a 4-3 road defeat. Finally, the southpaw is facing an Arizona lineup that’s hitting .282 against lefties over the past 10 games (conversely, the Rockies are batting .218 in their last 10 against right-handers).
Throw in the fact that the DBacks have scored at least five runs in 10 of their 12 games against Colorado this year – averaging 6.5 runs per contest – and I’ll take the visitors in this one.
4♦ ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS
Matt Rivers
For Friday take the Cardinals at Wrigley.
Can you say no-hitter hangover!??!?!? I can totally see Carlos Zambrano lay a semi egg here after that euphoric start in Miller Park last time out. Let's not forget how Big Z is not all that healthy and after throwing a ton of pitches in that last outing may not have been the best thing for him or the Cubs as they try and win it all.
The Cardinals have faded and are not going anywhere after the overachieving and solid first four or so months to the season. Tony LaRussa's squad is also injured as guys like Ankiel and Carpenter are done for the season but Albert is still unreal and with a few others like Glaus and Molina I can see the Redbirds win this thing here behind an ace in Adam Wainwright.
The last time Zambrano pitched at Wrigley against these Redbirds he was drilled helping lead to the injury and I just do not think he is all of a sudden right. The no-hitter, if anything, was not good for him in my book and to get a price back like this with a guy like Wainwright, who very well may be the better pitcher today, is a steal and a half!
Yankee Capper
2 Units - Padres -140
2 Units - Pirates +105
Dr Bob
CONNECTICUT (-12.0) 33 Baylor 23
Baylor won big for me last week against Washington State and the Bears still appear to be underrated under new coach Art Briles. Briles has brought in an offense that has proven to be successful at Houston and his fantastic freshman quarterback Robert Griffin is bringing that attack to life with a combination of good passing (9.1 yards per pass play and zero interceptions) and great running (307 yards on just 27 rushing plays). Griffin has been joined by sophomore back Jay Finley, who has run for 232 yards at 8.3 ypr in 3 games. Connecticut is very good defending the pass, but they are just mediocre against the run and I expect Griffin to have another good rushing performance. Baylor’s defense was pretty good against the run last year and their pass defense has greatly improved under the new coaching staff, so the Bears are now about average defensively and shouldn’t be overwhelmed by U Conn’s very strong rushing attack. The Huskies have averaged 305 yards at 6.3 yards per rushing play this season and they’ll get their yards on the ground even though Baylor has yielded just 3.8 yprp in their first 3 games (against teams that would average only 4.0 yprp against an average team). Overall it appears as if Baylor is underrated, as my ratings favor U Conn by just 5 points and using this year’s games only would make this game a pick. Connecticut, however, applies to a very strong 42-10-1 ATS subset of a 106-39-4 ATS home momentum situation, so I’ll only lean with the Bears this week.
Gold Medal Club
Minnesota vs Tampa Bay
PLAY MINNESOTA + and OVER 9
You give out the knockout punch to Minnesota's starter in the first inning last night, take a 2 run lead into the ninth and lose, not good. This is the kind of game that reveals the youth, and inexperience of being in a pennant race. You can bet that loss was hard to swallow, and tonight will not be any easier, as Edwin Jackson takes the mound. He is 5-6 at home this season, but we note 0-3 in his last 3 starts with an era of 10.95.Ouch! Twins manager Ron Gardenhire remarked after the game how the Twins are having trouble keeping the ball in the ball park, well expect both teams to have that trouble tonight. We will take the value here,in both the side and total!
Tom Stryker
MILWAUKEE (+112) over Cincinnati
In order to make it to the playoffs this year, Milwaukee will need to go on a serious run to close. Yesterday's loss at Chicago definitely hurt. But, if the Brew Crew can take care of business at Cincinnati, they'll still have a shot because they close with six home games.To get Milwaukee back on track, interim manager Dale Sveum will turn to veteran Jeff Suppan. Even though his last three starts haven't been his best, Suppan still boasts respectable numbers for the 2008 season. With 170.2 frames in the bank, Jeff has been nicked for 92 earned runs and 194 hits. That breaks down to a respectable 10-9 overall record and a decent 4.85 ERA. On foreign soil, the Brew Crew have cashed six of their last eight with Suppan on the bump.Cincinnati will counter with reliever turned starter Ramon Ramirez. No offense, but if Milwaukee can't beat this arm, they don't deserve to be in the playoffs!
SportsKingz
White Sox -130
Locksmith Sports
1 Unit on Tampa Bay Rays -111
Tampa Bay is a solid bet in this bounce back spot at home considering that it has only lost 23 games at home all season against 55 wins. The Rays are 51-16 in their last 67 home games, 18-5 in their last 23 Friday games, and 12-4 in their last 16 during game 2 of a series. The Twins are just 5-12 in their last 17 vs. the American League East, 2-7 in their last 9 games following a win, and 1-5 in their last 6 road games vs. a team with a winning record. Bet the Rays to bounce back at home tonight.
Mr East
Los Angeles Angels @ Texas Rangers
3 units Los Angeles Angels +101
The oddsmakers are treating the Angels like they are just playing out the string. The fact is they are in a race for homefield advantage, and these games have some bearing on the post-season, so they are currently under-valued. Natt Harriosn is a lefty with a 5+ ERA going for the Rangers, and the Angels are 31-15 against lefthanders on the season. The Rangers haven't been able to get it done vs victorious teams where they have gone just 3-12 in their last 15. I'm backing the Angels on the runline here.
Nick Parsons
Game: Philadelphia Phillies at Florida Marlins
Prediction: Philadelphia Phillies
Two red hot teams enter this crucial series with playoff implications down in Florida. However, we'll gladly back the better team here that's got the added confidence of the late season run they went on last season. It's like a "been there, done that" for the Phillies and we feel they are headed the same direction again this September. As for the Marlins, even though Johnson has pitched quite well (including against the Phillies) he does struggle much more against left-handed batters compared to right-handed batters and the Phillies are loaded with solid left-handed sticks as well as a pair of rock solid switch-hitters in Shane Victorino and Jimmy Rollins. The Phillies surge at the plate will continue here while Brett Myers of the Phillies continues his amazing second half run on the mound for Philadelphia. His long-term numbers versus Florida are not impressive but he's currently throwing as well as he ever has in his career! We'll grab the fair road price with the Phillies here as their September surge continues!