Kevin's Pick(s):
Well it was all Travis Wood for the Cubs, as he had 4 RBIs but also pitched a great game to prevent us from cashing our OVER play. Today's board is filled with plays I think we've got some value in and I've got three plays going for tonight.
2 UNIT = Kansas City Royals @ Cleveland Indians - ROYALS TO WIN (-101)
Listed Pitchers: Shields vs Salazar
(Note: I'm risking 2.00 units to win 1.98 units)
Cleveland won the first game of this series last night by a score of 4-3. The Indians are now 9-10 on the season, while the Royals are 9-9 after winning 5 of their last 7 games. Royals' Ace James Shields will take the mound and he has been great all year. He is 1-2 with a 2.00 ERA, .202 OBA and 0.96 WHIP. In his last start vs Houston he went 8 innings giving up just 1 earned run with 12 strikeouts and 2 walks. he will be up against young Danny Salazar. Although Salazar impressed in 10 starts in 2013 with a 3.12 ERA, he has struggled so far this year over his first 3 starts. He is 0-2 with a high 7.71 ERA, .345 OBA and 1.93 WHIP. In his last two starts he hasn't made it into the 5th inning and he has given up 5 earned runs in each. In his lone career start vs Kansas City last season Salazar went 6 innings and gave up 4 earned runs. Take note that the Royals are 12-3 in Shields' last 15 road starts and 19-8 in his last 27 starts overall. They are also 4-1 in his last 5 starts vs the Indians. Shields has been one of the best starting pitchers in the AL so far, and I'll take him at a generous price vs a struggling young pitcher.
2 UNIT = St Louis Cardinals @ New York Mets - METS TO WIN (+158)
Listed Pitchers: Wainwright vs Gee
(Note: I'm risking 2.00 units to win 3.16 units)
The Mets shutout the Cards in game one of this series with a 2-0 win last night. The Cardinals will send out Adam Wainwright to the mound who has been stellar over four starts this year. He is 3-1 with a 1.80 ERA, .163 OBA and 0.87 WHIP. Although Wainwright has been great all season, for some reason he struggles with the Mets. Lifetime over 40.1 innings he has posted a 6.02 ERA vs New York. The Mets will go with Dillon Gee tonight on the mound who is 1-0 on the season with a 3.71 ERA, .196 OBA and 0.97 WHIP. Gee has faded in late innings this year and over his career, but manager Terry Collins gave him the yank after 7 shutout innings in his last start where he took the win vs Arizona. Gee holds a career 3.65 ERA vs the Cardinals going 2-1. While the Mets are struggling at the plate, the Cardinals aren't doing much better - especially as of late. St Louis has scored 2 or fewer runs in 4 of their last 6 games. Take note that the Cardinals are just 1-4 in Wainwright's last 5 starts vs the Mets. At a nice underdog price I'll back Gee and the Mets.
2 UNIT = Houston Astros @ Seattle Mariners - MARINERS TT OVER 4.5 RUNS (+100)
Listed Pitchers: McHugh vs Ramirez
(Note: I'm risking 2.00 units to win 2.00 units)
This will be my first "Team Total" bet of the season. If you aren't familiar with team total bets it is simply betting on the amount of runs one team will score. Tonight we have Seattle to score more than 4.5 runs (meaning 5+ runs cashes our tickets). Almost all sportsbooks offer team totals for baseball, but if you can't bet the team total I do still like the OVER 8 +100.
While Seattle has been struggling at the plate, they do have some solid hitters in their line up. Tonight they will face Collin McHugh who fills in the rotation for Scott Feldman. McHugh pitched 5.2 innings in Spring Training for the Astros and had a 14.29 ERA, .414 OBA and 2.47 WHIP. That is obviously a very small sample size, but McHugh has had zero success in the Majors in his career and hasn't pitched overly well in Triple-A this year either. Over his Major League career of 15 appearances (9 starts) he has gone 0-8 with a 8.94 ERA, .356 OBA and 1.21 WHIP. This year in the minors he has a 4.50 ERA over 14 innings. I don't see any sign why the Mariners won't hit him hard often and early tonight. I'll bet the Mariners team total OVER 4.5 runs.
Kyle's Pick(s)
2 UNIT = Miami Marlins @ Atlanta Braves - UNDER 6.5 RUNS (-110)
Listed Pitchers: Fernandez vs. Wood
(Note: I'm risking 2.00 units to win 1.82 units)
The line moved up on our pick to 8 yesterday but it didn't matter, both UNDER 7.5 and 8 ended up coming in so all is well. Cashner gave up more than 3 runs for the first time since the mid-way point of last season, but the bet still managed to hold up at 4-3.
Today we look at a pitcher that was an instant money maker for me a season ago. He didn't get much of the recognition he deserved, but I definitely took note and cashed in as a result. I haven't looked at him yet this season, which is of course is changing right now. Fernandez has gotten off to a rock solid start besides one outing where he allowed 6 runs. That is okay though, the great pitchers will get hit hard like that and then put together 7-10 great starts in a row. I tend to try and ignore numbers that will skew the statistics up and that 6 is certainly an outlier. He only had one start where he gave up more than 3 runs last season, he followed that up by going 18 straight allowing going under 4. 17 of which were 2, 1, or 0 run outings. Fernandez currently has a 2.66 ERA, with the brunt of those numbers coming from that one start. He has only allowed 1 run in his three other starts. The ERA of Alex Wood is actually lower than Fernandez by about a whole run, 1.67. This is his second major year of action, like Fernandez, he brought in a 3.13 ERA in 77.2 innings pitched. Not up to his numbers exactly, but a solid start nonetheless. He has looked sharp and seemed to improve since then, posting four consistent starts in a row. The most runs he has yielded was 2 against the Nationals, the three others he gave up just a run. Two up and comers going head-to-head here. Runs should be difficult to come by, which should keep it under the total of 6.5.
Cheers,
Kevin