Golden State suffered a rough home loss last night, against a gritty and physical Rockets team, and now must go into Salt Lake City and take on a pissed-off Utah team that lost in San Antonio.
The Jazz are 2-1 against Golden State so far this season, including a road win, and though it’s always a good idea to be careful of Nelly's run-and-gun team, I don’t know how wound up it will be on the road after last night’s 222-point affair.
The Warriors are 2-6 ATS the last eight meetings with Utah, while they’ve dropped four of their last five to the books when playing in Salt Lake City. I’ll lay the home chalk here and look for a huge, double-digit win.
1♦ UTAH JAZZ
Seattle (-110) at OAKLAND
Side with the M’s and Felix the Cat tonight in this AL West clash, as they’ll notch a second-straight road win behind who is likely their ace this season. He comes in off a rather strange season-debut, in which he twisted his ankle in the first inning and though bothered by it off and on over eight frames, he still held the Twins to one run in the season-opener. Impressively, he escaped a first-and-second, no-out jam in the first inning without allowing a run and proceeded to dodge another bullet – an even bigger predicament - in the fifth, when the Twins loaded the bases with none out. Yet the crafty northpaw surrendered just one run.
He should get the run support he’ll need against young Josh Outman, who was considered a longshot to win a spot in the starting rotation this spring, but secured the No. 5 job with a solid outing in his final start, against the Royals. Let me be the first to say this, I think Ken Griffey Jr. will welcome the lefty to the 2009 campaign with at least one bomb today.
And once the M’s secure the lead, look for Hernandez to handcuff the A’s with a live arm that fires both a two- and four-seam fastball, power sliders, two-plane curveballs and a stunning change. Easy winner boys, as the M’s dominate in this one.
Chris Jordan 4-11-09
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