Saturday, July 05, 2014

MLB Game Picks - Saturday: July 5, 2014

The Fourth of July was a bit of a bumpy ride for the Game Picks but the day still pulled out with an 8-6 record with one postponement. That's not bad. Boston and Baltimore will play two games today to make up for yesterday. Surprisingly, the Mets did get their game in despite Arthur and even more surprising was my pick that Yu Darvish would lose to the Mets bore out. What did the Rangers accomplish by holding him up? Two losses it would appear.
My extra-inning streak continued as the A's outlasted the Blue Jays and won, 1-0. And Kershaw made my Game of the Day pick look easy. Though, I should get some demerits for stating that the scoreless streak would end. It did not. Clayton Kershaw is amazing.
Jason Hammel made my pick against the Cubs look bad and then was traded with Jeff Samardzija to the A's. The strong get stronger and the Cubs get...well...something...
Saturday's picks:
  • The Red Sox over the Orioles:  I still think Jon Lester beats Miguel Gonzalez, just like I did yesterday.
  • The Yankees over the Twins: I'd like to see MiLB lifer, Yohan Pino get his first win. Two of his three starts weren't bad. But the Yankees are bouncing back a bit on offense and David Phelps will need to be good today to win.
  • The White Sox over the MarinersJose Quintana is about the most underrated pitcher in baseball and I think since he is a lefty, he will shut down the Mariners. It all depends on if the White Sox can scratch a few off of Felix Hernandez, who I hardly ever pick against.
  • The Marlins over the Cardinals: These last two picks are frightening. But Andrew Heaney is too good not to win eventually and the Cards have trouble against lefties. Plus, Shelby Miller has been erratic.
  • The Pirates over the Phillies: This is a punt as both David Buchanan and Edinson Volquez are not very good or reliable. The Pirates are better than the Phillies, so we'll go with that.
  • The Tigers over the RaysAnibal Sanchez has been the Tigers' best starter for a month and a half now and even though Victor Martinez is out, I think the Tigers will score three runs against Chris Archer who is not as good against everyone else as he is against the Yankees and Red Sox.
  • The Braves over the Diamondbacks: I need to stop haranguing Aaron Harang. He has won more than he has lost and the Braves are rolling right now. Mike Bolsinger has been pretty good for the D-backs, though.
  • The Rockies over the Dodgers: Poor Dan Haren has to keep following Kershaw. That is like Enya following Mozart. I mean, Enya is pretty good, but...  Besides, Jorge De La Rosa will have an advantage at Coors since he is used to it.
  • The Reds over the Brewers: For some reason, I have this man crush on Homer Bailey. He must be pretty good because his contract is always bandied about whenever talk of Jon Lester's money talks come up. So let's go with him over Matt Garza, who I decidedly do not have a man crush.
  • The Royals over the Indians: Remember that thing I said yesterday about the Indians at home? Yeah. Forget all that. The Royals schooled them yesterday and Jeremy Guthrie has found a mile or two more on his fastball lately. T.J. House is a good name for an actor.
  • The Red Sox over the Orioles: Yeah, I'm looking at a sweep here. John Lackey has gotten beat his last two times out, but should be better than Ubaldo Jimenez even though the latter had a rare good performance last time out.
  • The Padres over the Giants: All Odrisamer Despaigne has done since was called up was confound writers with spelling his name and winning. Maybe in that order too. Tim Hudson is hard to count against, but this Cuban guy has been great.
  • The Mets over the Rangers: The difficult part of Bartolo Colon's starts is that you know one out of every four are going to be colossal stinkers. But you never know which one of the four it's going to be. It could be today, or it could not be today. That's his own personal crap shoot. Either way, the Mets hit Colby Lewis.
  • The Angels over the Astros: Did you see Mike Trout's walk off homer? The catcher was getting ready to dig it out of the dirt and Trout hits a two iron over the wall. Amazing. The win-less Franklin Morales over Scott Feldman.
  • The Athletics over the Blue Jays: This has been an incredibly pitched series but the Blue Jays have lost both. Scott Kazmir is another great starter and should be slightly better than Mark Buehrle.
And the Game of the Day:
  • The Nationals over the Cubs: Who is going to pitch for the Cubs today? Your guess is as good as mine (or Yahoo's or MLB.com's). The Nationals will start Gio Gonzalez, so that is good enough for me.
Yesterday: 8-6, July: 35-19, Games of the Day: 48-42, Season: 717-594

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