Game Picks - Sunday: August 29, 2010

A third straight day under .500. Just barely, but still. Because of the three-game slump, last week ended up only three games over .500. That's not good. A good month is going out with a whimper. And this was despite brilliant picks of Arizona, Toronto, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Baltimore. What went wrong? Pitchers like Santana that were once rock solid picks are not any longer. The Pirates blew a save (shock!). Greinke was game but the Royals lost in extras in the AL Central fight for last place. The Dodgers lost (should have seen that coming). Add it all up and there were too many losses. But the Fan will take comfort in what has been a successful season and in the fact that the sun will shine again today.

Sunday's picks:

• The Reds over the Cubs: Coleman was good last time out but horrible his first time. Wood was terrible last time out but good overall. What to do? Going with the Reds.
• The Royals over the Indians: Hey, if the Fan makes this pick enough days in a row, some day it has to be right. Chen over Carmona.
• The Mets over the Astros: Dickey gets the win and Norris the loss. What a great story Dickey has been.
• The Tigers over the Blue Jays: Porcello is no lock pick but he should fare better than Rzepcynski.
• The Cardinals over the Nationals: Wainwright seems to have hit a wall lately, but he'll win today over Lannon, who has had two good starts in a row.
• The Yankees over the White Sox: Injections of B-12? Nova over Floyd.
• The Marlins over the Braves: Josh Johnson has also hit a wall. But predicting he'll get it back against the Braves today against Lowe.
• The Athletics over the Rangers: Gio Gonzalez has been super. Lewis has been leaky lately for Texas.
• The Brewers over the Pirates: It's no fun picking Bush to win. But then again, the other option is picking Morton. No thanks.
• The Angels over the Orioles: Want to go with Guthrie and the feel good Orioles, but can't pick against Weaver in this one.
• The Dodgers over the Rockies: Ted Lilly is a really good pitcher.
• The Twins over the Mariners: Carl "Freakin'" Pavano beats French and the Mariners.
• The Padres over the Phillies: Just another game for Hamels. He'll pitch brilliantly only to lose to Richard.
• The Bay Rays over the Red Sox: The Bay Rays should get to Lackey and Shields has to have a good game. No easy task though.

And the Game of the Day

• The Giants over the Diamondbacks: When was the last time Rodrigo Lopez won a game? Point made.

Yesterday: 7-8
Last Week: 40-37
Month: 190-151
Season: 1091-806
Games of the Day: 72-56