Game Picks - Wednesday: June 10, 2009

It was an interesting day in Major League Baseball. The Tigers won a game in which Dontrelle Willis started. That's the good news. The bad news is that he gave up five walks in five innings of work. Kansas City's Bannister was sailing along with a good lead and he hadn't given up any runs. Then suddenly, his fielders blow up and the game goes in the tubes. Ted Lilly threw a great game in Houston. Billingsley threw way too many pitches but still won thanks to Ethier and Kemp. Tallet was great in Texas. Beckett and the bullpen throttled the Yankees. The Padres Young only gave up five hits in his outing. Unfortunately, four of them were homers. Speaking of homers, Johan Santana gave up four of them too, but still won. Morneau was too much for the A's to handle. The Rockies had a stunning come from behind win. And the Braves beat the Pirates despite Chipper Jones' ninth error of the young season. Derek Lowe was a lifesaver for the Braves.

So with all that in the database, here are today's picks:

• The Reds over the Nationals: Harang should have no trouble here. Martis was good early in the season, but as Rob Neyer pointed out, Martis' K/9 was troubling and Neyer was right.
• The Mariners over the Orioles: King Felix should beat Guthrie. Wieters and Rheimold had a great game yesterday. The Fan feels an Orioles post coming.
• The Indians over the Royals: Can the Fan actually be picking Pavano to win? The Royals are stumbling badly. Trey Hillman has not been impressive as a manager.
• The Bay Rays over the Angels: Which team has a worse bullpen. It's a toss up, isn't it?
• The Braves over the Pirates: Rule #5: Jurrjens is pitching for the Braves.
• The Marlins over the Cardinals: The Cardinals are floundering and the Marlins catch them at a good time.
• The Phillies over the Mets: Cole Hamels should beat Pelfrey.
• The Yankees over the Red Sox: The law of averages shout that the Yankees have to win one game against the Red Sox this year.
• The Brewers over the Rockies: It feels weird that the Brewers are in first place. They have seemed so nondescript.
• The Cubs over the Astros: Hate to pick against Wandy Rodriguez, but he's been shaky his last two times out and Zambrano is in his image-building phase after being a real jerk for a month.
• The Rangers over the Blue Jays: Have more faith in Millwood than Romero.
• The Tigers over the White Sox: Verlander is pitching. Ozzie is going to have a heart attack at this pace.
• The Giants over the Diamondbacks: Zito over the hapless crew from Arizona.
• Oakland over Minnesota: Have little faith in Liriano at this point.
• The Dodgers over the Padres: Kershaw versus LeBlanc should be a whitewash. Get it? Whitewash, LeBlanc? Oh never mind.

Yesterday: 10-5
Week: 23-16
Month: 50-48