Jeff Benton
The Rays last night for free, now 6 straight freebie winners!
Your Friday night freebie is the Under in the Nats-Cards game.
St. Louis still looking to secure their Wild Card ticket, and I think this game will have a playoff-like feel and will be a low-scoring pitcher's duel.
The Nationals are about due for a cool-down, as their bats have produced four straight Overs as they head to the Gateway City. As for the Cardinals, they have stayed Low in three in a row, and 10 of their last 14 overall.
Edwin Jackson and Adam Wainwright are in need of a quality start as they both get ready to twirl in the postseason.
Jackson did just steady himself with eight innings of one run ball pitched against Milwaukee, and he does own a 2.97 ERA when pitching under the lights this season.
Wainwright has worked his last three starts away from home, and five of his last six starts overall have also come on the road. I expect being back on a familiar mound will help in his cause to throw a solid game.
I like the Under in tonight's Nationals-Cardinals possible postseason series preview tonight at Busch.
2♦ WASHINGTON-ST. LOUIS UNDER
Chris Jordan
My free winner tonight takes us North of the border, where I find the American League East-leading Bronx Bombers taking on the Toronto Blue Jays inside the Rogers Centre.
We're on the run line, so we're going to end up with starting pitchers Hiroki Kuroda and Chad Jenkins for this game, and that's just fine with me. Though Kuroda has appeared to struggle of late, you can't take away the fact he was a force for the Yankees through the middle of the summer. He is 2-1 with a rather high 5.63 ERA in four September starts. And while I know he has gone no more than 6-1/3 innings in a game this month, I think he's going to get enough run support to spark a decent start tonight.
Jenkins is 0-2 with a 4.24 ERA this season and is having to rumble with a Yankees team that is now two games behind Texas for the best record on the junior circuit, and is seeing and hitting the ball well, save, of course, from last night's 6-0 loss to the Blue Jays.
The Yankees have a magic number of six for the A.L. East title, leading the Orioles by only one game with six to play. And despite Thursday's setback, the Bombers have won 11 of their last 15, while the Jays have lost 12 of 17.
My money tonight is on the revenge-minded Yankees, who win big behind a turnaround performance by Kuroda.
2♦ N.Y. YANKEES -1.5
Matt Rivers
Free play winner last night on the Browns-Ravens Under the total.
24-13 comp play run coming into Friday.
For Friday night, take the M's-A's game to play Over the total.
Both teams have been on a bit of an offensive uptick as we head into the final weekend of the regular season, Seattle on a 2-0-1 Over clip their past three games, while Oakland is on an 8-2-1 Over run their last eleven games overall.
Blake Beavan is the owner of a 5.07 road ERA this year, while his counterpart A.J. Griffin has lost his way his last pair of starts, allowing a rather large nine runs his last nine innings pitched.
Six of Griffin's last eight season starts have wound up landing in the Over column, while three of the last five season series meetings between these division rivals have also landed high.
Seattle-Oakland to combine for the Over tonight.
4♦ SEATTLE-OAKLAND OVER
Harry Bondi
Hawaii / BYU Under 49
BYU has gone under the total in nearly 60% of its home games the last 10 years and we'll follow that trend tonight. The Cougars have been stellar on defense this season and they have held three out of four opponents to 13 points or under, led by a stingy run defense that is dominating the line and limiting opponents to 68 rushing yards per game. Expect similar results tonight against a very young and inexperienced Hawaii offensive line that starts three freshmen and two sophomores. Unfortunately for BYU, the offensive line has also struggled and it has received very average play at QB. Both offenses will struggle to score tonight in what should be an ugly game. Go under.