Atlanta Braves -1.5 (+120) vs. Houston AstrosChuck James has been ridiculous of late, especially at home against below average lineups, like Houston.
-vs. STL (7IP, 1ER)
-vs. PIT (6IP, 0ER)
Atlanta didn't have a great road-trip, but are in a good mindset anyway. They rallied behind their ace to win 14-0 in their final game against a hot Arizona team, flew home that night and got the entire day off yesterday. They got to be with their families and sleep in their own beds. On the news they hear that they just landed Mark Teixeira, followed by Octavio Dotel. They have to be excited about where the team is headed, and with a full day of rest, the new best lineup in the NL should be able to put up a bunch of runs at home tonight.
Chris Sampson has not been horrible for the Astros, but has not given very good starts against good lineups. His last 3 starts (excluding Washington's miserable offense):
-vs. LAD (5IP, 4ER)
-vs. PHI (6.1IP, 4ER)
-vs. COL (5.2IP, 7ER)
Houston is 18-34 away from Minute Maid Park. You can't really be scared of the addition of Ty Wigginton to the Houston lineup. Sure, he's a decent bat, but think of it this way; Houston has had a poor offense all season with 3 good bats, Pence, Berkman and Lee. Now Pence is on the DL and they replaced him with Wigginton. However, Pence > Wiggy.
Another thing to keep in mind, Atlanta has a huge bullpen edge here. Houston's bullpen has a 4.81 ERA and just traded away Dan Wheeler. Atlanta's bullpen has a 3.79 ERA. I don't usually recommend taking Atlanta on the RL because even if they win the game, Wickman can easily give up a couple of runs to make it close at the end. However, in 16.2 IP, Wickman HAS NOT GIVEN UP ONE RUN AT HOME this season.
Looking to go 5-0 in 'LUNT's Pick Of The Night.' Good luck tonight!
