Category: Baseball

After splitting the first two games in Cleveland, the Indians and Cubs will now face off for the next three games at Wrigley Field – Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Kyle Hendricks gets the nod for the Cubs. Hendricks is 17-9 on the season, with a 2.09 ERA, and a WHIP of just 0.96. The Cubs are 16-5 in Hendricks’ last 21 starts and 9-2 in his last 11 home starts against a team with a winning record. Cleveland will counter tonight, sending Josh Tomlin to the hill, who is 15-9 on the season, with a 4.29 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP. The Indians are 3-7 in their last 10 meetings with the Cubs and 1-4 in their last 5 meetings at Wrigley. I like the Cubs in this one.

Tonight’s pick:

Chicago Cubs

The two best skippers in the business, Cleveland Indians’ Terry Francona and Chicago Cubs’ Joe Maddon, will face off in the Fall Classic which should be one for the memories. There is no fluke in this – these are, without question, the two best teams in baseball and they’ll get things started tonight at Progressive Field. The Indians will send their ace, Corey Kluber, to the hill, who is 20-10 on the season, with an ERA of 2.97 and a 1.06 WHIP. The Cubs will send their flame-throwing southpaw, Jon Lester, to the mound and he is 21-5 on the season, with a 2.29 ERA and a WHIP of just 0.99. Lester dominates in the post-season, with a 2.50 ERA in 17 career post-season starts and is 4-0, with a 3.72 ERA in 8 career starts in Cleveland. The Cubbies are 5-0 in Lester’s last 5 interleague starts and 6-2 in their last 8 meetings with Cleveland. I give the edge to Chicago in this one.

Tonight’s pick:

Chicago Cubs

The Los Angeles Dodgers will try to even things up at Wrigley Field today when they send their ace lefty, Clayton Kershaw to the hill. Kershaw is 6-2 in his last 8 against the Chicago Cubs and the Cubs are 2-5 in their last 7 against southpaws. I’m going with Kershaw in this one.

Today’s pick:

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Chicago Cubs will try to take a 3-2 lead back to Wrigley when they send their left-handed flamethrower John Lester to the mound tonight at Chavez Ravine to face the Dodgers’ Kenta Maeda. Maeda is 16-12 on the season, with an ERA of 3.70, a WHIP of 1.17 and has not performed well in his 2 post-season starts. In Game 1 of the NLCS, he yielded 3 runs on 4 hits over 4 innings of work and in Game 3 of the NLDS, he gave up 4 runs on 5 hits in just 3 innings of work. John Lester is 20-5 on the season, with an ERA of 2.33, a WHIP of 1.00 and has been lights out in his career in post-season play, with an ERA of just 2.57 in 18 appearances. The Dodgers are 0-4 in Maeda’s last 4 starts and 0-5 in their last 5 games against lefties. I like the Cubs in this situation.

Tonight’s pick:

Chicago Cubs

The Toronto Blue Jays looked sharp yesterday by dominating the Cleveland Indians and will try to send this series back to Progressive Field for Game 6 on Friday. Marco Estrada takes the hill for the Jays today in an early one at Rogers Centre. Estrada has been delivering over his last 3 outings, going 1-1, with an ERA of just 1.69, and a stingy WHIP of 0.80. Cleveland will send the rookie southpaw Ryan Merritt to the mound, who will be making his second Big League start and is 1-0, with an ERA of 1.64, and a WHIP of 0.55. The Jays are 8-3 in Estrada’s last 11 starts on 4 days’ rest and 5-1 in their last 6 home games against lefties. The Jays should get to the rookie today.

Today’s pick:

Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays can’t afford to go down 0-3, or its probably lights out for our friends from Ontario. John Gibbons will send Marcus Stroman to the hill to try to right the ship. Stroman is mediocre at best, with a record of 9-10, an ERA of 4.33 and a 1.27 WHIP, but the Jays are 6-2 in his last 8 home starts. Trevor Bauer gets the nod for the Tribe and he is 12-8, with an ERA of 4.30 and a 1.31 WHIP. With numbers like that, the Jays sluggers should be able to pounce on Bauer tonight.

Tonight’s pick:

Toronto Blue Jays

The Los Angeles Dodgers should even things up today at Wrigley Field when they send their ace southpaw, Clayton Kershaw to the hill. The Dodgers flamethrower is 13-4 on the season, with a 2.01 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP. The Cubbies will counter with Kyle Hendricks, who is 16-8 on the season, with a 2.18 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. The Dodgers are 5-2 in Kershaw’s last 7 starts against the Cubs. I like the Dodgers chances today.

Today’s pick:

Los Angeles Dodgers