Analysis:
#914 / 4:10pm ET - 1:10pm PT
Colorado Rockies with Jorge De La Rosa @ Arizona Diamondbacks with Rubby De La Rosa
2** Play on: UNDER the TOTAL
It’s a Sunday afternoon DE LA ROSA show, as we look to go LOW in the last game of this series. It’ll be Jorge for the visiting Rockies taking on Rubby for the host D’Backs… and BOTH De La Rosas come into today’s game in great current form. The ‘righty vs lefty’ matchup should also help us to a lower-than-anticipated final score, given each team’s current hitting tendencies. Factor in a very good ‘UNDER’ Umpire, and you have the makings of a solid 2** Play.
We would NEVER go Under the Total in a Jorge De La Rosa home start. Not in the best ‘OVER’ ballpark (Coors Field) in all of Major League Baseball. But put Jorge on the road, and you can play the UNDER with confidence… particularly as of late. For the year, the Rockies starting pitcher has gone 5-7 O/U. That includes 4-4 O/U in his home starts. But on the ROAD, De La Rosa has gone a very impressive 1-3 O/U on the season… and that includes a great ERA of 1.37! Jorge comes not today’s game in his BEST form of the season. He just had his best start of the year 6 days ago on the road in Oakland. In that game, Jorge threw 7 innings of SHUTOUT ball, and allowed only 4 hits in a 2-1 Colorado win. Dating back to the middle of May, Jorge De La Rosa has made eight starts. He allowed 3 or less earned runs in SEVEN of those starts… and 1 or less earned runs in HALF of ‘em (4 starts). His counterpart is Rubby De La Rosa for the host Diamondbacks. Yes, his ERA is an unremarkable 4.60 on the season.But he’s in top notch CURRENT form as well (just likes his counterpart). Rubby is on a 4-game stretch is which he has pitched ‘lights out’. Since the middle of June, Rubby has made four starts… pitched 27.6 innings… had a K/BB ratio of 23-6… and allowed only FOUR earned runs. That’s a 4-game ERA of only 1.30! You gotta love the current pitching form of BOTH of these De La Rosas on Sunday.
Working the final game of this series behind the dish will be FIELDIN CULBRETH. This Man in Blue is by far the BEST ‘Under’ Umpire working in today’s 15 games. For the season, Culbreath comes in with a record of 4-8-1 O/U. That 67% UNDER percentage is tied for the third BEST ‘Under’ percentage of all 84 full time Major League Baseball Umpires. Average runs scored in Culbreth’s games has been only 6.8. That’s also tied for the third LEAST runs-per-game of all 84 full time Men in Blue. Most of Culbreath’s low-scoring results have come as of late. After starting off the season going 3-2 O/U, he’s gone 1-6 O/U In his last seven games overall.. .with an average of only 5.0 combined runs per game. He’s also on a perfect 0-3 O/U streak in his last three games. Total runs in those three games: 5… 5… and 4. In the last three seasons overall, Culbreath is one of only THREE Major league Baseball Umpires who have gone UNDER in MORE than 61% of their total games.
Pick Made: Jul 5 2015 7:51AM PST