100♦ WHITE SOX (Action) - Sorry Yankees fans, but you’re giving me a home underdog on a three-game winning streak with arguably the hottest pitcher in baseball? Fine with me, I’m rolling with the White Sox in this series finale, as it appears they have New York’s number, while the Bombers are showing that weariness with a suitcase in hand once again.
All due respect to C.C. Sabathia, but Mark Buehrle comes into this one after setting a Major League record by retiring 45 straight hitters, dating back to the last out he recorded in a start against Baltimore on July 18. The southpaw, who is 11-4 with a 3.45 ERA this season, followed up his perfect game by retiring the first 17 Minnesota hitters he faced last Tuesday. Though he took the loss, this game today could be his best overall performance, considering the talent he’ll be facing. I know he has a 1-5 record with a 6.11 ERA lifetime against the Yankees, one of only four individual team losing records for the southpaw, but that should be even more motivation for him.
This marks Buehrle’s first meeting with the Yankees this season, in which the Pale Hose have won 15 of his 21 starts this season. This is the perfect spot for the suddenly hot Sox, as they’ve won three straight and the Yankees are playing their seventh straight road game in as many days. Let’s take a shot with the home pup tonight.
100♦ BLUE JAYS (LIST Romero/Mazzaro) - This should also be a pitching mismatch, I just don’t know how much I can trust the Blue Jays on the road, so I’m going to be cautious on how much I throw on the boys from north of the border. I do like this young kid Ricky Romero, though. He was sharp in his only start against the Athletics on April 19, giving up four hits with six strikeouts in seven innings of a 1-0 win, so that’ll be motivation to negate his last start, in which he wasn’t as sharp against the Mariners, despite a six-inning performance in an 11-4 win.
The southpaw gave up four runs and 10 hits, but I watched part of this game and was enthused the way he was aggressive in the zone and challenged hitters to contact the ball. Romero, who has been reliable all season, has the second-most quality starts (11) in the Majors for a rookie. Romero is 3-0 with a 3.93 ERA in his last five road starts, since allowing one run in 6-1/3 innings of a 1-0 loss at Texas on June 11, while the Jays have won seven of his last nine starts overall.
For Oakland, it’s 22-year-old Vin Mazzaro, someone I’ve made money by going against throughout the 2009 campaign. He is winless in nine straight assignments, while the A’s have lost eight of those games. Over those starts, he’s given up 35 earned runs over 47-1/3 innings for a rather high 6.65 ERA, while giving up an average of 7.4 hits per outing. Toronto has won 11 of the last 14 meetings, no reason to fight that today. Lay the road chalk.
100♦ MARLINS (LIST Nolasco/Dempster) - Tough card today, quite honestly, as Sundays have been tremendously weird for me. But I’m going to take a shot with these Fish today, and will do it while banking on Ricky Nolasco to outpitch Chicago’s Ryan Dempster.
Let’s start with the Florida right-hander, who was forced to take a no decision his last time out even though he held the Braves to two runs on seven hits over seven innings while striking out five. His durability emerged, however, as he pitched himself out of several jams at home. The Marlins are 2-1 in his last three starts, in which he has a 2.79 ERA – much better than the season number of 5.24. Nolasco is 2-1 with a 3.60 ERA in three career starts against the Cubs.
Starting for Chicago, it’s a very rusty Dempster, who didn’t look like himself in his first outing in 3-1/2 weeks. After being sidelined with a broken right big toe, suffered July 5 in a freak dugout accident, he threw 85 pitches over five innings and gave up six runs on nine hits. He wasn't sharp at all, and consistently had trouble finding his location. Looking inside the numbers, the Cubs are on losing streaks of 16-36 as the road pup, 2-6 on the road against a winning team, 1-6 with Dempster on the hill, 2-12 when he’s listed as the road underdog and 1-11 in his last 12 on the highway overall.
With just one win in Dempster’s last seven starts, and now having to face a Marlins team that has won eight of their last 11 and seven of Nolasco’s last nine starts, I’ll side with the home team, lay the low chalk and list both hurlers.
I figured since this one is on television, and it’s the trendy topic for most handicappers – “let’s give the game out that’s being televised and try to get some sales” – I’ll give you the obvious choice for free so you can have some token action on the game.
It’s certainly not the best value on the board, as you can see by what I have available right now, while aiming for my 12th winning day the last 14. Went 2-1 yesterday and upped the season numbers to more than 7,500♦ of net profit for the MLB season. Want to play three winners, my package expires at 4:05 p.m. eastern and is ready right now.
Want the game on TV, no problem, everything points to the Braves.
Atlanta has won five of the last six meetings with the Dodgers in Atlanta and seven of the last 10 overall with their old-school rivals. The winning should continue today, as Jair Jurrjens has been pitching tremendous since the All-Star break, going 2-0 with a 1.37 ERA in three starts. He’s given up a total of three runs over 19-2/3 innings, and in his last three at home, he’s yielded just one earned run while the Braves have gone 3-0.
He’s been doing much better then Chad Billingsley, that’s for certain. The right-hander is 1-2 with a 9.45 ERA in his last three outings and comes in after being tattered by the Cardinals for six runs in 5-2/3 innings of a 10-0 loss. Going back to his last four starts, he’s given up 19 runs in 18-1/3 innings.
Chris Jordan 8/2
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