Game Picks - Monday: May 21, 2012

Sunday was yet another bad day here for the Game Picks. It is a bit like a reverse King Midas. Everything this picker touches lately turns to dust. Oh well. Things have to get better soon. After all, doing these picks everyday for three and a half years have never seen a picking slump like this one. At least the Game of the Day feature has been on a four game winning streak.

There are thirteen games on the schedule today. Only four teams have the day off. This run of games has been pretty amazing. Teams have got to be gassed as all of them have been playing endless days with very few off days. That's great for fans, but the players have to be dragging a bit.

Monday's picks:

• The Red Sox over the Orioles: The Red Sox are starting to put things together and it all starts with the pitching. Clay Buchholz has been much better of late. And you know the Red Sox are going to hit. Tommy Hunter will try to slow them down. He won't.
• The Yankees over the Royals: It is May 21, and so far, the Yankees are a .500 team. Sooner or later, this team is going to break out and have a run. And it all starts with Hiroki Kuroda who must get his act together, keep the ball in the park and give the team some solid innings. Felipe Paulino is a tough pitcher though.
• The Mets over the Pirates: Sooner or later, Johan Santana will start reaping the benefits of his good pitching. But he keeps getting tough assignments, like today against Erik Bedard.
• The Nationals over the Phillies: Two teams that struggle at the plate and have to win with pitching. The match up today of Gio Gonzalez versus Kyle Kendrick does not favor the Phillies.
• The Braves over the Reds: The Reds are fresh off of beating the Yankees two out of three and return home for this series against the Braves. But they have their weakest pitching link on the mound in Mike Leake. Mike Minor has also been the weak link for the Braves. Something has to give.
• The Marlins over the Rockies: An aged left-hander in Jamie Moyer against a middle- aged lefty in Mark Buehrle. There will be a lot of slop thrown at the plate today!
• The Bay Rays over the Blue Jays: Jeremy Hellickson wins this first battle of the "Ays." Kyle Drabek pitched well against the Yankees, but Hellickson is better.
• The Astros over the Cubs: Bud Norris is one of the hottest pitchers in the game right now. He'll beat the hard luck Matt Garza, who never gets run support.
• The Giants over the Brewers: Madison Bumgarner is still the bomb. He just shouldn't pitch in Arizona. He will shut the Giants down and the Giants will eke out some runs on Randy Wolf.
• The Cardinals over the Padres: Clayton Richard outside of Petco Field is always scary. Jaime Garcia needs to follow his last good outing with another one. Yonder Alonso is swinging a hot bat, but he doesn't have much help in that lineup.
• The Dodgers over the Diamondbacks: The first thought was that Chris Capuano might struggle in the favorable hitting atmosphere of Arizona. But then the thought of placing a pick in the hands of Patrick Corbin didn't sound right.
• The Athletics over the Angels: A very tough game to pick. Jerome Williams is 4-1 and just seems to find a way to win. But Tommy Milone is 3-0 in that Oakland ballpark with less than a run given up per game.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Rangers over the Mariners: This would have been a great match up between Felix Hernandez and Yu Darvish if this was the King Felix from two years ago. But he's lost velocity and he's getting hit. Darvish just wins.

Yesterday: 6-9

Week: 6-9

Month: 145-137

Season: 334-286

Games of the Day: 27-18