The Braves look to remain red-hot and complete the interleague sweep, but the road underdog has an ace up its sleeve.

Detroit Tigers at Atlanta Braves

Detroit was in control of Saturday’s contest against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field, but one pitch in the seventh inning changed that in a hurry.  Relief pitcher Joel Zumaya gave up two walks in the inning before Braves 3B Chipper Jones sent a fastball into the right-center field bleachers to give the home team a 4-3 victory.  The Tigers are now 10-7 in interleague play (+280) and 1-4 on its current road trip that has sent them to New York (1-2) and Atlanta (0-2).  First baseman Miguel Cabrera was the lone bright spot in the defeat, hitting a solo home run in the ninth inning to tie Toronto’s Jose Bautista for the MLB-lead (20).  He came into the game hitting .356 with 11 home runs and 35 RBI on the road this season.

Continue reading “Sunday MLB Betting Preview – Tigers at Braves”

Two of the best interleague teams in all of baseball get set to square off in Game 2 of this series in front of a national audience.

Detroit Tigers at New York Mets

Detroit suffered a 14-6 blowout loss against the New York Mets in its first game of  nine-game road trip, after finishing a nine-game home stand with an 8-1 record.  “We made about as many bad pitches in one game as you could make,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said.  The Tigers have dropped nine of their last 12 road games, as the pitching staff has produced a terrible 6.36 ERA over that span.   One member of the until that hasn’t been part of those troubles is closer Jose Valverde.  The Tigers will be in a solid position if he enters the game tonight, as he’s converted each of his last 16 save opportunities and tops all AL relievers with a 0.59 ERA.

Continue reading “ESPN Wednesday Night Baseball Betting Preview – Tigers at Mets”

Here is Tuesdays MLB Handicapping Report

Chicago White Sox

  • The White Sox are currently 2-3 on their seven-game road trip.  Chicago has also lost six of its last nine games overall.
  • Chicago is 9-1-1 in the last 11 season series against Detroit.
  • Team has compiled a 6-11 record against the AL Central this season.  Chicago went 34-38 against the division in 2009.
  • Lead the American League with 44 stolen bases this season.  OF Juan Pierre leads the Majors with 18 steals.
  • SP Freddy Garcia is 7-1 with a 3.77 ERA in his last nine starts versus the Tigers and 16-6 with a 3.76 ERA lifetime.  His 16 wins against Detroit is tied with Boston’s Tim Wakefield for the most among active pitchers.
  • Garcia is a perfect 7-0 with a 2.77 ERA in his last seven road starts versus Detroit.

Continue reading “Tuesday MLB Handicapping Report”

Boston heads out on the road after finishing their last 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record. They enter a tough stretch in facing teams currently in first or second place in each game until May 27. “It will be a good test,” said Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew. “I think we’re well cut out for it. We know what we’ve got to do.” This type of schedule is nothing new for the Sox, as they have played 13 games this season against teams with a .600 winning percentage or better this year, tied for 2nd-most in the Majors. Boston is 3-10 (.231) in those contests. Look for 1B Kevin Youkilis to lead the charge offensively, hitting .394 (13-for-33) since the start of May, adding two home runs and scoring 11 runs over that span.

Continue reading “Redsox Tigers Betting Preview”

A little football, then a little baseball today:

First, the football. That was a very interesting game last night. I wasn’t particularly excited about it – fatigue over the Favre hype. In the end, though, it ended up being interesting for a number of reasons. First, and most troubling for Green Bay, that is one terrible offensive line they have there. Jared Allen is a nice player, but not nearly that nice. He absolutely decimated Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, and gave them little chance of success. The Packers were a team I was very keen on coming into the season, but they stand little chance of doing anything meaningful until they find a way to offer even a little bit of protection. That was pathetic. On the other side, Minnesota’s offensive line performance was very mixed. On one hand, Favre had all of the time in the world to do whatever he wanted, and he made the most of it. On the other hand, though, Adrian Peterson was contained in a very surprising and uncharacteristic way. The final piece of interest out of this game is the question of just how good they Vikings are. They are 4-0 and will be hyped up significantly after this high profile win, but I still don’t feel like we have seen them really be tested. The first two wins against the Browns and the Lions prove nothing. The San Francisco game probably should have been a loss if it wasn’t for the fluky last second pass. The Packers weren’t a particularly real test either given that offensive line. Next up is the Rams, too, so this team will be 5-0 without a true test. This team is good, but we won’t know how good until we see them play the Ravens in week six. In my eyes this is a very tough team to assess right now.

Continue reading “Looking Back, Then Looking Ahead”

Spain suffered a damaging, and potentially fatal, blow as they prepare for the Euro 2008 finals against Germany. Striker David Villa will miss the finals thanks to a sore hamstring. Villa is the tournament’s leading scorer, and he has been dynamite both when he is scoring and when he isn’t, so his loss is a real blow to both the team’s chances and their confidence. Spain is still fairly heavily favored to win it all (surprisingly heavily, really), but Germany becomes an even  more attractive underdog given this news.

Continue reading “Thoughts Heading Into The Weekend”

Manchester United rules the European soccer world after taking the Champions League final today over Chelsea. If you are North American then chances are pretty good that you don’t care. This was a pretty spectacular game, though, or at least the finish was. They were tied at one after the 90 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime. That meant that the game and the most prestigious club championship in the world would be decided in the middle of the night in Moscow in the puring rain by penalty kicks. Cristiano Ronaldo, Man U’s top scoring threat and one of the top players in the world, missed his kick and all looked lost. All Chelsea captain John Terry had to do was score and they won. As he approached the ball he slipped and fell, and the ball sailed harmlessly wide of the net. Man U went on to win in extra kicks, and Terry, one of the elder statesmen of English soccer, looked like he was going to hang himself with his consolation medal. You don’t have to like soccer to enjoy this – you just have to like human suffering and pure agony.

Continue reading “Wednesday’s Quick Hits”

  • Carmelo Anthony is a moron. He had his worst game of the year on Sunday – 11 points on 3-for-14 shooting. He chose the best and most logical way to get over the embarrassment of the situation – he went out and got hammered and drove home. He obviously got busted, and now he will have a May 14 court date hanging over him if and when his team secures their playoff spot. The Nuggets were a team that could have done some damage in the playoffs, but this kind of distraction is pretty much the worst thing possible for them. It will be very interesting to watch how they react going forward. I can’t decide if it is a good or a bad thing that they don’t play until Wednesday, and then will have days off until the playoffs start.
  • It’s far to early to say for sure, but maybe, just maybe, the Tigers have remembered how to hit. They exploded for 11 runs tonight, including innings of four and six runs. That’s the best offense output of the season, and it came from the right place – huge games from Ordonez, Cabrera and Guillen in the middle of the lineup. It’s just one game, but at least it’s a start. The downside is that they allowed nine runs, so the defense was terrible, but they can only really do one thing at a time until they get the ship righted.
  • The Ottawa Senators are truly terrible. They have lost three straight games to the Penguins in their playoff series, and they have not given us a single reason to think that they are going to win one before it is over. It is almost incomprehensible that a team could be the best team in the league for the first month of the season and have more talent than the all-star team has had some years, yet they barely made the playoffs and would have been better off if they hadn’t.

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