Tuesday 8's: Big Unit, Carpenter cap trio of Tuesday tilts
Tuesday 8's: Big Unit, Carpenter cap trio of Tuesday tilts
Three games going off just after eight o'clock tonight pique my interest, capped by a Randy Johnson, Chris Carpenter hook up in St. Louis when the Giants meet the Cardinals.
Angels at Rangers
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, 8:05 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Joe Saunders, L (9-6, 3.66) vs. Scott Feldman, R (8-4, 4.06)
Umpire: Veteran Tim McClelland will be making his 18th start behind the mask in this one. He has a slight lean to the visitors, 10-7, and a heavy lean to the Over, 10-4-3. More than a dozen plate crossings on average when he calls the pitches, with an 8-1-1 O/U/P record in the 8½-10 range.
Weather: Cloudy with a decent chance of rain moving through a lot of Texas today, a welcome relief from the hotter 'n hell spell we've been in. Better chance of rain during the afternoon, and isolated t-storms are a good possibility early in the evening. Looking at something in the mid-to-upper 80s for a temperature, a little wind is out of the NW at 8-10 (out to left, left-center).
My Pick: Tough call here. The Rangers, with the exception of a couple of games late last week at Arizona and home against the Padres, have been very dead on offense for the past couple of weeks. Then again, they always lit Saunders up in this park. Ian Kinsler is already drooling bigger puddles than Pavlov's mutt. Can't play on Texas, hard to play on Saunders given his history in this situation, so I'll play on McClelland and what is generally a hitter's park, hoping the Rangers bats come alive a bit against an arm they feast on, and take the Over 10 (-110).
Twins at Royals
Kauffman Stadium, 8:10 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Scott Baker (6-8, 5.17) vs. Brian Bannister (7-6, 4.17)
Umpire: Sam Holbrook is not an umpire angles kinda' ump this season, split 7-7 on the Home-Away side and 6-8 on the Over/Under. If he has a big trend going for him, it's that he's 4-1 for the home team in the -145 to -185 range, a stat that doesn't matter in this one with the Royals the home dogs in this one.
Weather: Beautiful night in KC on Tuesday, or should be. No chance of rain, fairly low humidity for the area, first pitch temp in the upper 70s probably, light breeze out of the north at 5-10 and possibly picking up to 10-15 as the night progresses (from left in towards 1B).
My Pick: I just don't like the Royals right now. At the same time, Minnesota is a money-burner on the road. Give me the Under 9 and I'll shop around to see if I can get it better than the -120 I'm seeing at most shops.
Giants at Cardinals
Busch Stadium, 8:15 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Randy Johnson, L (9-7, 4.68) vs. Scott Carpenter (5-5, 1.78)
Umpire: Tim Tschida has been pretty even this year in terms of splits, 7-9 in favor of the visitors and 7-7-2 on the totals. But there is a nice average of 10.3 runs per game and only two 1-run contests among his 15 plate appearances.
Weather: Like their neighbors in KC, it should be a nice evening in St. Louis. Upper 70s when the game gets started, relatively low humidity this time of year but stronger winds out of the NW at 12-18 MPH (from LF corner across to RF corner).
My Pick: Believe it or not, Carpenter is making just his fourth home start of the season, with his last four on the road. St. Louis and Carpenter are 3-0 in his previous three appearances at Busch and one of his few road wins came in San Fran. I hate getting sucked into this big chalk however. So I'm going to take a little more risk on the run line for the Cardinals, -1½ (+122).
Three games going off just after eight o'clock tonight pique my interest, capped by a Randy Johnson, Chris Carpenter hook up in St. Louis when the Giants meet the Cardinals.
Angels at Rangers
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, 8:05 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Joe Saunders, L (9-6, 3.66) vs. Scott Feldman, R (8-4, 4.06)
Umpire: Veteran Tim McClelland will be making his 18th start behind the mask in this one. He has a slight lean to the visitors, 10-7, and a heavy lean to the Over, 10-4-3. More than a dozen plate crossings on average when he calls the pitches, with an 8-1-1 O/U/P record in the 8½-10 range.
Weather: Cloudy with a decent chance of rain moving through a lot of Texas today, a welcome relief from the hotter 'n hell spell we've been in. Better chance of rain during the afternoon, and isolated t-storms are a good possibility early in the evening. Looking at something in the mid-to-upper 80s for a temperature, a little wind is out of the NW at 8-10 (out to left, left-center).
My Pick: Tough call here. The Rangers, with the exception of a couple of games late last week at Arizona and home against the Padres, have been very dead on offense for the past couple of weeks. Then again, they always lit Saunders up in this park. Ian Kinsler is already drooling bigger puddles than Pavlov's mutt. Can't play on Texas, hard to play on Saunders given his history in this situation, so I'll play on McClelland and what is generally a hitter's park, hoping the Rangers bats come alive a bit against an arm they feast on, and take the Over 10 (-110).
Twins at Royals
Kauffman Stadium, 8:10 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Scott Baker (6-8, 5.17) vs. Brian Bannister (7-6, 4.17)
Umpire: Sam Holbrook is not an umpire angles kinda' ump this season, split 7-7 on the Home-Away side and 6-8 on the Over/Under. If he has a big trend going for him, it's that he's 4-1 for the home team in the -145 to -185 range, a stat that doesn't matter in this one with the Royals the home dogs in this one.
Weather: Beautiful night in KC on Tuesday, or should be. No chance of rain, fairly low humidity for the area, first pitch temp in the upper 70s probably, light breeze out of the north at 5-10 and possibly picking up to 10-15 as the night progresses (from left in towards 1B).
My Pick: I just don't like the Royals right now. At the same time, Minnesota is a money-burner on the road. Give me the Under 9 and I'll shop around to see if I can get it better than the -120 I'm seeing at most shops.
Giants at Cardinals
Busch Stadium, 8:15 p.m. (ET)
Starting Pitchers: Randy Johnson, L (9-7, 4.68) vs. Scott Carpenter (5-5, 1.78)
Umpire: Tim Tschida has been pretty even this year in terms of splits, 7-9 in favor of the visitors and 7-7-2 on the totals. But there is a nice average of 10.3 runs per game and only two 1-run contests among his 15 plate appearances.
Weather: Like their neighbors in KC, it should be a nice evening in St. Louis. Upper 70s when the game gets started, relatively low humidity this time of year but stronger winds out of the NW at 12-18 MPH (from LF corner across to RF corner).
My Pick: Believe it or not, Carpenter is making just his fourth home start of the season, with his last four on the road. St. Louis and Carpenter are 3-0 in his previous three appearances at Busch and one of his few road wins came in San Fran. I hate getting sucked into this big chalk however. So I'm going to take a little more risk on the run line for the Cardinals, -1½ (+122).