[LUCKYME1]

Our free selection is on the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox. Last night, the boys from Beantown shut out the Bronx Bombers 7-0 behind Josh Beckett, and will turn to veteran knuckleballer Timmy Wakefield on Wednesday. His mound opponent will be Chien-Ming Wang, who has been dreadful all season. Wang's ERA is 14.46 over his seven starts, so the knee-jerk reaction might be to play on Wakefield here, especially given that Boston is 6-0 over the Yankees this year. But Wakefield's ERA is pretty bad, too, over his last three starts: 7.27, with a 1.85 WHIP. And he's NEVER had success vs. the Yankees in his career, going 10-15 with a 4.80 ERA. Take the Yankees as a live underdog tonight. Good luck, as always...Al McMordie.

Total of the Month is on the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians 'under' the total. Before the start of the season, it was practically a foregone conclusion that newly-acquired righthanded starter Carl Pavano - coming off four injury plagued seasons with the Yankees - would be lucky to survive two months as the Indians number three starter. But two months into the season, the only person separating Pavano from being considered the ace of this Tribe staff is reigning Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee. Pavano comes into this start off of his best outing of the season, a complete game shutout in Chicago against the White Sox and Pavano now has a 2.15 ERA over his last four starts and a 3.00 ERA over his last eight. Kansas City's Gil Meche seems to have recovered nicely from some issues earlier in the season with his back. Since a sub-par outing on May 14 against the Orioles, Meche has now had four starts in a row in which he has surrendered two runs or less, culminating in his last start in Tampa in which the veteran righthander only gave up one earned run in six innings. But the fact that Meche only has two wins on the season in 68 innings pitched (to go along with five losses) is a pretty good indication of the run support issues he has had all year. In seven of Meche's 12 starts, the Royals have scored three runs or less. Take the 'under'