Game Picks - Thursday: June 9, 2011

Life can be merciful. Last night, some good sized thunder storms rumbled through here and we lost power and the Internet. Cable may talk about a satellite dish's problems during a storm, but cable's record is no better. We were like the old Roger Miller song: No phone, no food, no pets. Except there is a pet. Anyway, the merciful part comes from being spared the opportunity to shout and swear at A. J. Burnett, who never does anything useful and is the most useless when needed most. Further mercy was granted in that this picker did not have to endure the agony of another losing day of picks, the third in a row. But dawn proved that the cable company still wants to get paid and thus this daily feature can go on as scheduled. Before getting to the picks, let's discuss what went wrong yesterday.

First, we have the aforementioned Burnett meltdown. The Yankees' offense did its part by getting to Wakefield, but by then the cows had come home and the barn door was shut. Derek Jeter needs just eleven more hits. Then we move to Houston where Lance Berkman did indeed hit another homer. But the rest of his teammates went to sleep against their nemesis, Bud Norris. So much for that Game of the Day pick. A blown save by J. J. Putz (sick of initials in baseball!) blew that pick and allowed the Pirates to get back to .500. That's a good news/bad news scenario. Aaron Cook did his part and gave up ten base runners in 5.2 innings of work, but the Padres stranded most of them and then Heath Bell coughed up two runs for the loss. Ryan Dempster and three sparkling relief efforts for the Cubs baffled the Reds as the Cubs won their second in a row. Guess they aren't quite dead yet. The Indians wasted another very good effort from Justin Masterson and lost in the tenth inning. The Tampa Bay Rays also won their game in ten innings after James Shields matched Jared Weaver for seven innings. Ozzie Guillen had Sergio Santos pitch the ninth inning of a scoreless game. He had no problem in the ninth, but Guillen sent the pitcher back out there for the tenth and he couldn't get anyone out to give he Mariners a win. Add all of this up together and you get eight bad picks out of fifteen.

The Internet went out again in the middle of writing this post. Thanks again, Time Warner. Okay, before it goes out again, here are Thursday's picks:

• The Blue Jays over the Royals: The Royals offense is starting to gel, but they can't get anybody out. Ricky Romero over Luke Hochevar.
• The Diamondbacks over the Pirates: Riding the Josh Collmenter legend for all it is worth. But Jeff Karstens has been good too and the Pirates are not an easy team to beat anymore.
• The Red Sox over the Yankees: Josh Beckett shut the Yankees down earlier in the year. C. C. Sabathia should fare better than Burnett and Garcia, but it won't be enough.
• The Cubs over the Phillies: Seeing that it's the Cubs, this pick looks foolish, but this Fan likes Randy Wells over Kyle Kendrick.
• The Braves over the Marlins: Jair Jurrjens had a bad outing last time out. But he should bounce back. The Marlins counter with Chris Volstad, who has been a homer-giving machine thus far.
• The Cardinals over the Astros: MLB.com lists Jaime Garcia as today's Cardinal pitcher. Umm...he pitched last night. The start goes to Lance Lynn making his second career start. J. A. Happ goes for Houston. This Fan always roots for rookies.
• The Brewers over the Mets: Thinking here is that Yovani Gallardo continues to roll against a sometimes tough, Jonathan Niese. Tough call here, really.
• The Oakland Athletics over the Chicago White Sox: Why did the Fan get so formal in naming those two teams? Anyway, the A's are due for a win and what better pitcher to do it with than Trevor Cahill. Mark Buehrle is tough though.
• The Rangers over the Twins: Derek Holland is starting to get really good. Nick Blackburn had back troubles in his last start. That's never good.
• The Rockies over the Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw goes for the Dodgers and he can be very good. But the Dodgers have to score, and against Juan Nicasio, that might not be easy.
• The Padres over the Nationals: Going with Aaron Harang at home again. That's worked in the past. Livan Hernandez still has some tricks up his sleeve though.
• The Reds over the Giants: Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner seem to cancel each other out. Thus, going with the better offense.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Tigers over the Mariners: Doug Fister shouldn't be able to keep up with Justin Verlander.

Yesterday: 7-8

Week: 26-30

Month: 56-52

Season: 499-419

Games of the Day: 41-29