At 7:10pm our selection is on the Houston Astros over the Florida Marlins. Despite being a mere shell of the teams they had four or five years ago, the Astros are still hovering right around the .500 mark and are only about six games out of the NL Central Division lead. And they've been hanging around without the services of arguably their most productive offensive player in first-baseman Lance Berkman, who's been out with a calf injury since shortly after the All-Star break. But Berkman says he's feeling better and he may in fact return for this game, which would be just fine with starter Roy Oswalt, himself coming off an injury to his back which caused him to leave his last start on July 8 after only 1 2/3 innings, although Oswalt did not go on the DL. Florida's Chris Volstad cruised into the All Star break with a complete game shutout on July 8 at San Francisco, but since the second half began, Volstad has not been very effective, giving up four earned runs in three of his five starts and winning just twice during that time. The Marlins really struggle when Volstad pitches at home as the team is just 4-7 in Volstad's 11 starts at Landshark Stadium. The opposite has been true for Oswalt when he pitches away from Houston lately as his team has been victorious in six of his last seven road starts. Take the 'Stros.
Expect the Royals and Twins to engage in a shootout Tuesday night at the Metrodome in Minneapolis when Kansas City and Minnesota open their three-game set.
Our Tuesday night MLB selection is on the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals going over the total at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
In their effort to keep pace with Detroit and Chicago, Minnesota seems to be losing the battle as they have gone 3-7 in their last 10 games heading into this week which will see the two worst teams in the division, Kansas City and Cleveland, come to town for six games. Righthander Nick Blackburn takes the mound for Minnesota and despite the fact that his team has lost his last four starts, there is reason for optimism as he seemed to turn the corner in his last start. The Twins would have won that one if they had given Blackburn any run support, something that was not a problem for him throughout July as in five starts during the month the Twins scored a total of 35 runs and all but one of those starts went over the total.
To say that righthander Kyle Davies' return to the Royals rotation after almost two months away was disappointing would be an understatement. Davies picked up right where he left off in his last MLB start on June 19 and that is bad news because it means that Davies was pretty awful.
The Royals are going to give him another chance tonight because he was so effective during his time in Triple-A Omaha where he went 4-2 with a 2.14 ERA in eight starts, but there is a big difference between those hitters and the likes of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. All of Davies' last three starts have gone over the total, as have seven of Minnesota's last nine games. Take the Over.
Big al 8/11
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