Game Picks - Thursday: July 21, 2011

Over on Twitter yesterday, a follower asked how these games were picked. The follower said that this picker was good and wanted to know. Perhaps he will change his mind after last night's 7-8 stumble.

It was simply a weird night. Take the Rangers pick. They had an 8-3 lead going into the sixth inning. Pretty safe, right? The winning streak is alive, right? Wrong. The Angels exploded for six runs in the sixth and Ron Washington was too slow to react. Bam. Loss. Take the Cardinals pick. They had three different leads against the Mets and couldn't hold a single one of them. Take the Giants pick. The Clayton Kershaw - Tim Lincecum duel was everything you wanted it to be. The only run came on a homer to McCovey Cove by Dodgers' catcher, Dioner Navarro, a batter with a slugging percentage of .295 at the time.

There were a couple of bad picks including the Game of the Day. It's only natural for this picker to get carried away with the Pirates, who lost to the brilliant Johnny Cueto. Jeff Karstens was good, but Cueto was better as was the Reds defense. Picking the Bay Rays looks bad in retrospect but geez, Freddie Garcia was better than David Price? And picking the Tigers to win with a rookie on the mound was pretty dumb.

But it wasn't a total disaster which means the week is still way ahead. Eight games are on the shortened Thursday schedule. Thursday's picks:

• The Marlins over the Padres: Dustin Moseley has pitched pretty well all year, but he's 2-9. That happens some times. Meanwhile, Javier Vazquez has found a few more yards on his fastball and should win.
• The Mets over the Cardinals: Jake Westbrook is the weakest Cardinal pitcher and the Mets are simply a different team with Jose Reyes in the line up. Jonathan Niese goes for the Mets.
• The Blue Jays over the Mariners: Doug Fister is the AL version of Dustin Moseley. Good ERA, no run support. Ricky Romero with the win.
• The Braves over the Rockies: You have to go with Tommy Hanson over Jhoulys Chacin in this one, don't you?
• The Yankees over the Bay Rays: Is any pitcher hotter than C.C. Sabathia? James Shields will have his trade possibilities upgraded if he loses this one. Perhaps that will be incentive?
• The Angels over the Rangers: A must win for the Angels with their ace, Jared Weaver on the mound. C.J. Wilson is the Rangers' ace too, but gets the loss here.
• The Brewers over the Diamondbacks: The Fan really hates to pick against Ian Kennedy, but the D-backs received a really bad blow when Stephen Drew broke his ankle last night. Zack Greinke with the win.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Tigers over the Twins: Justin Verlander gets his 13th win over Carl Pavano, who will probably be somewhat stingy in a big game.

Yesterday: 7-8
Week: 36-21
Month: 136-104
Season: 800-665
Games of the Day: 69-40