Well, it took 3 days of treading water before we finally broke through yesterday with a few winners! It was a full card, with the afternoon Cincinnati dog paying, then St. Louis, Atlanta and Boston all bringing home the bacon in the evening. The Angels were a loser for us (as well as half the pros in the forum), and a half-unit gamble on Washington didn't pay off, but a 4-2 day, +2.35 is nothing to scoff at. That brings us back to roughly 15 units profit since the All Star break (and +14 on the season, since we were down a unit in the first half), and hopefully today will be another fat, fat winner.
NL
Delwyn Young - Young is a stout 6-for-8 career off Micah Owings with a homer and 3 driven in; Owings makes his return from the DL tonight, which usually means a lack of sharpness.
The Phillies - True, Mike Pelfrey is 2-0 against the Phillies, but both of his victories came by mid-May, and the Mets scored 7 runs in both wins. The Phils are batting .292 as a team off Pelfrey, and have come 1-2 hits away from putting up big-time numbers against him. Greg Dobbs (6-for-11, HR, 3RBI), Pedro Feliz (3-for-9, RBI), Ben Francisco (1-for-3), Ryan Howard (6-for-17, HR, 2RBI), Raul Ibanez (3-for-9, 3RBI), Jayson Werth (5-for-14) and Chase Utley (5-for-18, 3HR, 7RBI) have all done some damage against the righty.
Ross Gload - The Marlins Mr. Gload is a career 10-for-25 off Atlanta starter Javier Vazquez with 4 RBI.
Ryan Church, Brian McCann and Martin Prado - The Braves have done some significant damage to Anibal Sanchez, who is making his return from the DL -- Church is a blistering 8-for-16 with a homer and 4 driven in, Prado 5-for-10 with a pair of RBI, and McCann is 4-for-11, including a longball and 3 RBI.
Stephen Drew - Drew is 7-for-17 against Roy Oswalt, but his teammates are about as worthwhile as old socks.
More Giants Than You Might Think - Aaron Cook held the Giants to 2 runs over 7 innings earlier this year, but he did so by escaping jams constantly. The Giants, as a team, hit .321 against him this year, and lifetime, Travis Ishikawa (4-for-5, 3RBI), Bengie Molina (.313, 3RBI), Edgar Renteria (4-for-10, RBI), Aaron Rowand (6-for-16, 3RBI), Freddy Sanchez (3-for-7), Pablo Sandoval (2-for-5), Eugenio Velez (2-for-6), and Nate Schierholtz (2-for-2) have all posted success against him, and playing at Coors should lead to a few more runs.
Troy Tulowitzki, Garrett Atkins, Ryan Spilborghs and Chris Iannetta - Tulo has bashed Jonathan Sanchez to the tune of .417 with a homer and 5 RBI, Atkins is batting .368 with 8 driven in, Spilborghs is 5-for-15, and Iannetta is batting .308 with a homer and 3 RBI, as well.
Adrian Gonzalez - A nice, solid 7-for-17 off Kyle Lohse, including a homer lifetime.
Geovany Soto - 4-for-11 lifetime off Randy Wolf, and though Wolf has a poor career record against the Cubbies, the current crop hasn't done a great deal against him.
Matt Kemp - Kemp must have faced Wells a few times in the Minors, he's 6-for-12 off him in his career with 2 RBI.
AL
Reddish Sox - Oh, hey, did we mention it's Yankees-RedSox weekend time again? Jason Bay (12-for-27, HR, 3RBI), J.D. Drew (12-for-32, 3HR, 4RBI), Jacoby Ellsbury (5-for-12, 4RBI), Kevin Youkilis (9-for-25, HR, 3RBI), David Ortiz and Mike Lowell (each 8-for-24), have all put some sweet numbers up against Andy Pettitte in their careers, and with both teams playing well right now, this should be a heck of a series.
Willy Aybar - Aybar is 4-for-12 off Dustin Nippert, and in Nippert's only career start against the Rangers, he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings.
David DeJesus and Miguel Olivo - Believe it or not, this game looks like a mismatch in KC's favor, with DeJesus a career 6-for-12 off Nick Blackburn, and Olivo 6-for-11 with 2 homers and 4 RBI.
Jermaine Dye - 4-for-11, 1 HR and 2 RBI off Jeremy Guthrie, who has actually pitched "okay" against the White Sox this year, but Gavin Floyd is a tall order.
The Tigers - Detroit hit .389 against Gio Gonzalez earlier this year in Detroit, including a Ryan Raburn 2-for-2 and a Polanco home run.
TOP PLAYS
1)
Pittsburgh Pirates (-135) vs. Cincinnati Reds - Well, we had our one day of betting on the Reds, now we're back to fading them. Plus, the Pirates have rattled off 3 straight wins at home, and look like a young team with growing confidence ready to crank out a few more W's before hitting the skids for a couple weeks. On the hill for Pittsburgh is Mister Inconsistency, Charlie Morton. He has traded off good starts and bad starts since he moved into the rotation permanently in early July, and if he decides to pitch as good tonight as he did bad his last time out, he's got a complete game shutout in the chamber. Okay, so perhaps it doesn't work that way, but given Morton's decent home/road splits, the Reds complete lack of offense (Brandon Phillips may continue to miss time with a sore wrist), and Micah Owings making his first start off the DL for Cincy against a team that he already allowed 5 runs to (in 5.2 innings) earlier this year, a Pirates home win seems likely.
2) New York Mets vs.
Philadelphia Phillies (RL -1.5, -113) - With the way the Phillies have been scoring, it's tough to imagine the makeshift Mets putting together enough offense to stay even remotely close in any game this series, especially if Sheffield is indeed headed out of town. Heck, even if he's not traded, his head's not in the game, so the Mets are down to the power bat of...Fernando Tatis? Now, Hamels did not pitch well against the Mets earlier this year, but if he can claw his way through 5 or 6 innings of 2 or 3-run ball, the Phils have a great shot to win this sucker by a wide margin. Pelfrey has allowed the Phils to bat near .300 against him this year in 3 starts, yet somehow remains 2-0 against them with an ERA near 3.90. The walls are damn close to caving in, and with the way the Phils have been hitting, tonight's the night the walls come a'crumblin' down.
3)
Boston Red Sox (+107) vs. New York Yankees - The two giants face off yet again, but this time Boston isn't in a tailspin. In fact, both teams are coming off productive series, and Boston still hasn't lost to the Yanks at Fenway. I realize the same logic could have been applied to New Yankee Stadium a few weeks ago, but let's be reasonable, the Sox actually play better at home...WAY better. Brad Penny, tonight's starter, has been bad lately, but has excellent numbers against the Yankees in his career, mostly because he has fully, 100% shut down A-Rod and Tex. On the other side, Andy Pettitte has been pitching well in the second half, but there are a handful of Sox that have high career averages against him, and I expect Boston to take game one of this series in front of their home crowd.
4)
Atlanta Braves (RL -1.5, Even) vs. Florida Marlins - The numbers are pretty sexy for Braves-backers tonight. They're coming home after knocking off Johan Santana yesterday, and today send Javier Vazquez to the mound against a Marlins team that appears to be struggling just slightly after a very hot run. Vazquez has an ERA against Florida of 4, but has been burned by a few big hits, ones Florida has not been getting in their back-to-back losses. The Marlins will activate Anibal Sanchez to start tonight, and as you can see in the Roundup, Sanchez has run into a few problem spots with the current Braves. Already this year, he has an ERA of 5 against Atlanta, and those starts occurred when McCann was on the DL and Ryan Church was still a member of the Mets.