Game Picks - Sunday: May 1, 2011

After Saturday's day games, this game picker was sitting at 6-1 and feeling on top of the world. The only blemish to that point was Brett Anderson getting unexpectedly whacked around. April was going to end on a high note! NOT! Wandy won at home (should have seen that coming). The Red Sox lost...again. The Twins looked good until Baker came out of the game. Then they imploded. The Marlins blew Josh Johnson's lead. The White Sox had an ugly inning. Garza finally won a game he should have won. And the Padres blew their yearly average and scored five runs. In that entire stretch of games, only the Rockies win over the Pirates was a correct pick.

And so the Fan had his first week end in the red. April ended with a whimper and just a modest 53.6 percent success rate. That's hardly a rousing success. The Game of the Day feature ended up under .500.

At the risk of being totally cliche, perhaps April showers will lead to May flowers. It's a fresh week and a fresh month and let's see if this dang thing can start off on the right foot:

• The Indians over the Tigers: Phil Coke has not been a good starter and Masterson is 5-0. Why does that not sound comforting enough? Law of averages, perhaps?
• The Yankees over the Blue Jays: The teams have split so far and the Blue Jays are no pushovers. Jesse Litsch is also a pretty good pitcher. But Nova was good his last time out and the Yankees are at home.
• The Mariners over the Red Sox: All signs point to a Mariner win. King Felix verses old man Tim Wakefield sounds bad. But again, when everything seems so right, things have a way of biting you.
• The Giants over the Nationals: Matt Cain is simply a safer pick than Jordan Zimmermann.
• The Cardinals over the Braves: The Cards get out the brooms with Jaime Garcia throwing bee-bees. And the cards score off of the erstwhile and should-be-embarrassed Derek Lowe.
• The Angels over the Bay Rays: Will Alex Cobb pull out a Worley and win an emergency start after a call up from the Durham Bulls? Unlike Worley, Cobb is facing Jared Weaver.
• The Brewers over the Astros: Narveson goes for the Brewers. MLB.com lists Wandy Rodriguez as the Astros' starter. Umm...he pitched yesterday. He's good, but not that good.
• The Orioles over the White Sox: Gavin Floyd has been good. But Zach Britton has been better.
• The Twins over the Royals: The Royals are the better team at this point. But Pavano always messes this picker up when he's picked against. Pavano has a winning record against the Royals but a very high ERA. Hochevar, though, has not looked good in his last two outings.
• The Rockies over the Pirates: Morton was good his last time out against the Giants. But the Rockies at home are a different story. Ubaldo Jiminez gets his first win.
• The Athletics over the Rangers: Gio Gonzalez has a 3-1 career record against the Rangers with a 2.09 ERA. That should do it against Matt Harrison.
• The Diamondbacks over the Cubs: Two struggling pitchers in Daniel Hudson versus Casey Coleman. Hudson was better his last time out though. So going with him.
• The Marlins over the Reds: The Fan hates picking against Bronson Arroyo. There's just something gutty and heroic about him. But the Marlins seem like a better team right now and Nolasco has been pitching well.
• The Dodgers over the Padres: Not thrilled in picking Garland to win against his former team (or anyone else for that matter). But poor Dustin Moseley can't buy a win.

And the Game of the Day!

• The Phillies over the Mets: The Phillies love being on national television. They just do. And Cliff Lee, after a couple of pedestrian starts, will look like Cliff Lee. Chris Young with the loss.

Yesterday: 7-8
Last week: 45-48
Last month: 212-183
Season: 212-183
Games of the Week: 15-16