thursday
Our 3 selections include Seattle, Pittsburgh and the 'under' in the
Arizona/San Diego game.
Seattle -- At 7:05pm our selection is on the Seattle Mariners over
the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles will hand the ball to young
prospect Daniel Cabrera who has been incredibly inconsistent so far
this year. In early May, Cabrera had back to back brilliant
performances at home against Toronto and Minnesota but followed that
up with two of his worst outings including the last one at home on
May 20th when he lasted less than 4 innings! The O's just got Sammy
Sosa back off the DL but now are faced with losing catcher Javy Lopez
for up to six weeks with a broken hand and All-Star prospect second
baseman Brian Roberts is also hurting with a sore knee. Look for the
O's to have problems tonight without these two leaders in their
lineup and for the Seattle bats to wake up against the inexperienced
Cabrera. Take the Mariners.
Pittsburgh -- At 7:10 pm, our selection is on the Pittsburgh Pirates
over Cincinnati. The Reds have 4 of the NL's top 10 strikout leaders
in Adam Dunn (52), Jason LaRue (43), Ken Griffey (39) and Austin
Kearns (38), so this will be a tough matchup tonight against Pirates
lefty Oliver Perez, one of baseball's top strikeout pitchers. Perez
came back from an injury and pitched well in his first start on May
21, giving up 2 runs in 5 innings, with 8 strikeouts for an 8-3 win
over Colorado. In 6 starts vs. Cincy this season and last year, Perez
has given up just 9 earned runs in 38 innings pitched (with 51
strikeouts), and the Pirates have won 5 of those 6 games. Take
Pittsburgh.
Arizona/San Diego 'under' -- At 9:40 pm, our selection is on the
Padres and Diamondbacks to go 'under' the total. Peavy's ERA is 2.29
this year, while Webb's home ERA is 2.62. The D-Backs have gone
'under' in 28 of 46 games this year, and we'll look for a very low
scoring game tonight. Good luck, as always...Al McMordie.
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