Category: Baseball

The Saint Louis Cardinals are 2½ games back of the Colorado Rockies for the second National League wild card spot and will try to inch closer when they go for the series sweep tonight over the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. The Cardinals have had success over the Reds, going 6-1 in the last 7 meetings, and 4-0 in their last 4 trips to Cincinnati. St. Louis is expected to call on Carlos Martínez to throw strikes. Martínez comes into tonight’s contest with a record of 11-11, a 3.57 ERA, and a 1.19 WHIP. Homer Bailey is expected to go for the Reds and he has struggled, with a record of 5-8, a 6.86 ERA, a 1.72 WHIP, and Cincinnati is 2-7 in his last 9 home starts.
TONIGHT’S PICK: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

The Los Angeles Dodgers have now lost 3 in a row but they should right the ship tonight when the lefty Alex Wood taps the rubber for Los Angeles. Wood is having a stellar year, with a record of 15-3, an ERA of 2.69, and a 1.06 WHIP. The Dodgers are 17-4 in Wood’s last 21 starts and 8-1 in his last 9 road turns. The Phillies will counter with Jake Thompson, who has been mediocre at best. Thompson is 2-2, with an ERA of 4.46, and a 1.65 WHIP. The Dodgers are 9-4 in the last 13 meetings with Philadelphia and they should get this one.
TONIGHT’S PICK: LOS ANGELES DODGERS

The pesky San Diego Padres took game 1 of a 3-game set from the Arizona Diamondbacks last night but tonight Arizona should get back in the win column because of a major pitching mismatch. The Padres are expected to send the lefty, Travis Wood, to the hill and he has been downright terrible. Wood is 0-2 in his last 3 outings, with a bloated ERA of 15.58, a 3.23 WHIP, and with numbers like that, how is this guy still in the Bigs? Zack Godley is expected to take the hill for Arizona. Godley has been delivering, with a record of 2-0 in his last 3 turns, posting an ERA of 1.29 and a WHIP of just 0.86. Arizona has been feasting on southpaws. The Diamondbacks are 10-1 in their last 11 games against southies.
TONIGHT’S PICK: ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a 5-game lead over the Colorado Rockies for the top spot in the Wild Card race and they should be able to pad that tonight when they travel to Petco Park to take on the San Diego Padres. Patrick Corbin is one of the hottest pitchers in baseball and he will tap the rubber for Arizona. Corbin is 14-12, with a ERA of 4.06, a 1.42 WHIP, and Arizona is 6-1 in his last 7 starts. Luis Perdomo will start for the Friars. He is 7-10, with an ERA of 4.61, a 1.51 WHIP, and the Padres are 0-4 in his last 4 starts against the Diamondbacks. Arizona has had the upper-hand with the Padres, going 14-6 in the last 20 meetings, and they are 9-1 in their last 10 road games. Everything says Arizona here.
TONIGHT’S PICK: ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS

The New York Yankees are poised for a 4-game sweep over the Baltimore Orioles in an early one today in the Bronx. The Yankees’ bats are hot. They’ve outscored the Orioles 30-10 over the last 3 games and that should continue today because Baltimore will send Ubaldo Jiménez to the hill. Jiménez is 0-2 in his last 3 starts, with a 9.95 ERA, and a 1.97 WHIP. The Orioles are 0-4 in Jiménez last 4 road starts and they are 1-9 in their last 10 overall. The Yankees will counter with Sonny Gray. Gray has pitched well over his last 3 outings, with a record of 1-2, a 2.61 ERA, a WHIP of only 0.97, and the Yankees are 5-0 in their last 5 home games. Bombers today.
TODAY’S PICK: NEW YORK YANKEES

The New York Yankees put a beating on the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, 8-2, and I see that happening again today. Baltimore has had issues in the Bronx, going 8-21 in their last 29 trips to the Stadium, and they are 1-7 in the last 8 meetings overall. Joe Girardi is going to send Jordan Montgomery to the hill to face Baltimore’s Jeremy Hellickson. The southpaw Montgomery is 7-7 on the season with a 4.24 ERA and Hellickson is 8-9 with a 5.23 ERA. The Yanks are 6-1 in their last 7 overall and 4-0 in their last 4 home games. I like the Bombers in this situation.
TODAY’S PICK: NEW YORK YANKEES

The Tampa Bay Rays return home tonight to Tropicana Field and will open a 3-game set against Chris Sale and the Boston Red Sox. After a slight bump in the road, Sale is back to his dominant form. The lefty is 2-1 in his last 3 turns, with a 1.56 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP, and last faced the Rays on Saturday when he gave up 6 hits with 8 Ks and no runs in a 9-0 Red Sox win. Matt Andriese gets the nod for Tampa. Andriese has been awful in his last 3 starts, going 0-2, with a 14.09 ERA and a 2.48 WHIP – and that’s not a typo. When Tampa Bay put Andriese up against Sale last Saturday, he gave up 8 runs on 7 hits and couldn’t make it out of the second inning. The Rays are 0-4 in his last 4 starts and 0-5 in their last 5 games against southpaws. That spells doom when you have to face a flame throwing lefty like Sale.
TONIGHT’S PICK: BOSTON RED SOX