MLB Game Picks - Friday: May 22, 2015

Finally! It took my son's birthday to get me on track! I only got three wrong for the day yesterday for a much needed boost to my picking morale. Now, if I can keep this going, I would be most thankful!

Friday's picks:

• The Pirates over the Mets: Noah Syndegaard has been everything the Mets had hoped he'd be. But Gerrit Cole is everything the Pirates hoped he'd be too. As the starters cancel each other out, I'll go with the home team.
• The Yankees over the Rangers: The Yankees get some much needed home cooking after a brutal road trip and have their best pitcher on the mound. The Rangers go with Colby Lewis, who I will no longer bad-mouth.
• The Mariners over the Blue Jays: Let's see...would you go with Felix Hernandez or Marco Estrada? No brainer right? Those are always the ones that trip me up though.
• The Tigers over the Astros: I love me some Collin McHugh. But here's the thing: The Astros ONLY hit homers. They have like a .200 batting average. The Tigers' home park is massive. So not many homers are hit there. I'm going with Alfredo Simon and the Tigers.
• The Orioles over the Marlins: The Marlins have gone from bad to worse under their new manager. What a dumb organization that is. Anyway, I like Ubaldo Jimenez's chances in Miami better than Henderson Alvarez as he is currently pitching.
• The Indians over the Reds: The Reds have hit hard times of late and Mike Leake is leading the way with quite a drop off in production since his early starts. Carlos Carrasco is a quality starter.
• The Angels over the Red Sox: The Red Sox are reeling and can't seem to hit lately. They keep tinkering with things and they should just get something they believe in and leave it alone for a while. But anyway, I like Garrett Richards over Mike Porcello here.
• The Rays over the Athletics: Disaster has struck the A's as they have sunk to the depths of the AL. Boom goes the division championship dreams! Scott Kazmir hasn't been at fault. But I think Chris Archer is the difference here.
• The Brewers over the Braves: The Brewers are a hot team right now, so I'm sticking with them while they are sizzling. Shame on Fredi Gonzalez for the pine tar incident. That was a cheap shot.  Wily Peralta and Alex Wood are the starters.
• The White Sox over the Twins: Phil Hughes and Jeff Samardzija have been encouraging to their respective teams with their last starts. I simply like the threat of the long ball against Hughes by the White Sox hitters.
• The Rockies over the Giants: The Giants just made the Dodgers look like silly putty. So why pick against them? Because baseball is funny. I don't like either starter here in either Ryan Vogelsong or Kyle Kendrick. But one of them has to win.
• The Royals over the Cardinals: You have to admit that everything is going right for the Royals when they sign Chris Young and he starts out going 3-0. They are charmed right now. They are also the perfect offense against Lance Lynn as they don't strike out and sit on fastballs.
• The Cubs over the Diamondbacks: The D-backs have been playing some good baseball of late. Jon Lester, however, has been coming on strong for the Cubs. Josh Collmenter was good his last time out but isn't as good as Lester.
• The Dodgers over the Padres: The Padres are going to pay for what happened to the Dodgers in San Francisco. Again, that's baseball. Speaking of baseball, Andrew Cashner has had quality starts in six of his last seven outings and is 1-7. Ouch. Zack Greinke goes for the Dodgers.

And the Pick of the Day

• The Nationals over the Phillies: Sean O'Sullivan shut me up his last outing and pitched really well. But he runs up against Max Scherzer. And the Nats are hot and Bryce Harper got thrown out of his last game. Look out.

Yesterday: 9-3, May: 140-119, Season: 304-284, Picks of the Day: 24-20