Game Picks - Friday: June 8, 2012

The good news is that after a long slump, the Game of the Day pick finally came up a winner (thank you, Giants). The bad news is that everything else was bad news. The day started with zip for seven picks. Dickey was great again. Hamels lost. Sabathia lost. Darvish lost and Buehrle lost. And the kicker of the entire thing? After finally giving up on the Tigers after picking them game after game...they won. Those buggers. Now they have things totally confused. A late rally was not enough and the day ended with the picks, 5-7.

And now that the week is back in the red and the month is just barely over .500, interleague starts in again. Oh goody! Here are Friday's picks:

• The Pirates over the Royals: The Pirates are at home, so the Royals lose the DH. Luke Hochevar has been a mess of late and Erik Bedard could shut the Royals down.
• The Yankees over the Mets: Johan Santana is fresh off his no-hitter. But he will be on a pitch count. The Yankees will make sure he reaches it early. Plus, they love lefties. Hiroki Kuroda has to pitch well though.
• The Orioles over the Phillies: The DH might help the Phillies offense. But it's still a bad offense. This will allow Jake Arrieta to save his rotation spot for now. Joe Blanton will be victimized by the Orioles' offense, which will bounce back after getting blanked by Buchholz.
• The Tigers over the Reds: Oh, here we go again. Dang these Tigers! They will lose the DH, but since the DH is a nonentity for them anyway, who cares. The Tigers should hit Bronson Arroyo and hope that Rick Porcello can keep the ball inside the park.
• The Marlins over the Bay Rays: Ricky Nolasco has to be the good one this time and not the bad Ricky. The Rays lose the DH, offense they can ill afford to lose these days. Jeremy Hellickson can shut the Marlins down though, so this pick is no gimme.
• The Red Sox over the Nationals: Just a hunch the Red Sox can make Stephen Strasburg work too hard in this one. Felix Doubront is doing great too. The DH might hurt the Nats as Strasburg might be one of the Nats best hitters.
• The Twins over the Cubs: In a battle of bad teams, the pick is for the pajama man, P.J. Walters, who should be better than Travis Wood.
• The White Sox over the Astros: Does the DH help the Astros? Who will it be? Gavin Floyd has been horrible. But the Astros should help. Wandy Rodriguez has faltered a bit after a great start.
• The Brewers over the Padres: The token all NL game. Won't have that problem next season. Shaun Marcum at home should be the pick over Edinson Volquez, though Volquez has been better of late.
• The Indians over the Cardinals: The Indians lose the DH, but they get Jake Westbrook, who has given up more runs lately than he's gotten outs. Josh Tomlin, if he is on, will have the Cardinals driving the ball into the ground.
• The Angels over the Rockies: Trout, Trumbo and Pujols should have fun in Coors, especially against Alex White, though he was good his last time out. The Angels lose the DH, but C.J. Wilson should win the game.
• The Diamondbacks over the Athletics: The A's have lost Yoenis Cespedes again. Sheesh. Daniel Hudson is nice for the D-backs to have back. He should win though Tommy Milone can be tough. Hudson is more used to the dry air of Arizona than Milone.
• The Mariners over the Dodgers: Didn't know what to do with this one. Kevin Millwood is Kevin Millwood. The Dodgers haven't scored for Nathan Eovaldi. Anything could happen in this one. The Mariners are at home.
• The Rangers over the Giants: Don't like this game either. Matt Harrison is inconsistent. Barry Zito can be really good or really bad. The Rangers have been struggling. The Rangers lose the DH.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Braves over the Blue Jays: The Braves are on a serious roll. Brandon Beachy has been terrific. The Blue Jays lose the DH and Kyle Drabek has been struggling.

Yesterday: 5-7

Week: 32-33

Month: 49-46

Season: 451-387

Games of the Day: 35-27