MLB Betting: Rangers Go For Sweep at Chicago White Sox
The White Sox look to being swept at home by the Rangers tonight when Texas sends right-hander Colby Lewis the mound to face Paul Konerko and Chicago.
Two teams that I predicted would win their divisions before the 2010 baseball season started finish up a three-game set Thursday on Chicago's South Side. To date the Rangers are doing a fair job of making me look smart. The White Sox, however, are making me look bad.
Freddy Garcia (5-4, 5.26) will get the call for the home team against Texas' Colby Lewis (5-5, 3.41). Baseball odds have the Rangers favored in the 115-130 range to complete a three-game sweep with nine the universal total.
Texas took the opener Tuesday, 9-6, raking 19 hits off Chicago pitchers with seven Rangers posting multi-hit games. The White Sox carried 123 chalk into that one. Chicago was once again favored by about the same price on Wednesday when Texas pounded out 12 more hits, including a Mark Treanor homer, for a 9-5 win.
The final marked the fourth straight 'over' between the clubs in meetings this season, and gave the Rangers four wins in the five 2010 matchups. Texas enters Thursday's finale 28-24 on the season, up a little more than two units and holding a one-game lead over the A's in the AL West. Chicago is 22-30, over 10 units in the red and 8.5 back of Minnesota in the Central.
Garcia has turned around a sluggish start with both he and the White Sox 4-1 his last five trips to the mound. The lone loss was a stinker, a 13-0 loss at home to the Marlins on May 23. Garcia lasted just 2 1/3 innings and allowed seven earned. He's given up just six runs combined in the four wins covering 26 frames.
Vladimir Guerrero (5-for-20, HR) and Michael Young (9-for-34) are the only two Rangers who have seen much of Garcia during their careers. This will be just his third go against Texas since the start of the '05 campaign. Garcia has worked 12 innings and allowed just one run in the other two starts, a win and a no-decision.
After spending the 2008-09 seasons with the Hiroshima Carp, Lewis has returned to Texas with a fine effort so far. He was originally the 38th overall selection in the 1999 draft by the Rangers before bouncing to the Tigers and A's and then going to Japan.
Lewis leads all Texas starters with a 3.41 ERA, with the Rangers 2-3 when he works on the road where he has a 3.65 ERA. His last start against the White Sox was in May 2007, and it's one Lewis would like to forget. The right-hander, then part of Oakland's rotation. made it just 3 1/3 innings at The Cell and allowed all of Chicago's runs in a 10-4 loss.
Guerrero was injured before the start of Wednesday's game when he was hit near his left eye by one of his own batted balls while taking BP. Guerrero is listed as day-to-day.
The man behind the mask for the series finale should be Wally Bell who will be making his 14th plate appearance of 2010. Bell has shown no tendencies on the totals with a 6-5-2 'over' mark, 4-4-1 in games listed in the 8½-10 run range. He has been home heavy, however, with hosts winning nine of his previous 13 plate duty affairs.
Fair to partly cloudy skies are in the forecast for Thursday's contest. The thermometer should be in the mid-60s for the start before dropping into the mid-50s overnight. The weathermen are calling for NE winds at 5-10 mph (LF corner to behind the 1B bag).
Texas heads home after this one to begin a seven-game homestand with the Rays and Mariners. Chicago's homestand continues this weekend with the Indians followed by the Tigers to open next week's slate.
The White Sox and Rangers will meet once more this regular season when Chicago travels to Texas for a three-game series over the Fourth of July weekend.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
The White Sox look to being swept at home by the Rangers tonight when Texas sends right-hander Colby Lewis the mound to face Paul Konerko and Chicago.
Two teams that I predicted would win their divisions before the 2010 baseball season started finish up a three-game set Thursday on Chicago's South Side. To date the Rangers are doing a fair job of making me look smart. The White Sox, however, are making me look bad.
Freddy Garcia (5-4, 5.26) will get the call for the home team against Texas' Colby Lewis (5-5, 3.41). Baseball odds have the Rangers favored in the 115-130 range to complete a three-game sweep with nine the universal total.
Texas took the opener Tuesday, 9-6, raking 19 hits off Chicago pitchers with seven Rangers posting multi-hit games. The White Sox carried 123 chalk into that one. Chicago was once again favored by about the same price on Wednesday when Texas pounded out 12 more hits, including a Mark Treanor homer, for a 9-5 win.
The final marked the fourth straight 'over' between the clubs in meetings this season, and gave the Rangers four wins in the five 2010 matchups. Texas enters Thursday's finale 28-24 on the season, up a little more than two units and holding a one-game lead over the A's in the AL West. Chicago is 22-30, over 10 units in the red and 8.5 back of Minnesota in the Central.
Garcia has turned around a sluggish start with both he and the White Sox 4-1 his last five trips to the mound. The lone loss was a stinker, a 13-0 loss at home to the Marlins on May 23. Garcia lasted just 2 1/3 innings and allowed seven earned. He's given up just six runs combined in the four wins covering 26 frames.
Vladimir Guerrero (5-for-20, HR) and Michael Young (9-for-34) are the only two Rangers who have seen much of Garcia during their careers. This will be just his third go against Texas since the start of the '05 campaign. Garcia has worked 12 innings and allowed just one run in the other two starts, a win and a no-decision.
After spending the 2008-09 seasons with the Hiroshima Carp, Lewis has returned to Texas with a fine effort so far. He was originally the 38th overall selection in the 1999 draft by the Rangers before bouncing to the Tigers and A's and then going to Japan.
Lewis leads all Texas starters with a 3.41 ERA, with the Rangers 2-3 when he works on the road where he has a 3.65 ERA. His last start against the White Sox was in May 2007, and it's one Lewis would like to forget. The right-hander, then part of Oakland's rotation. made it just 3 1/3 innings at The Cell and allowed all of Chicago's runs in a 10-4 loss.
Guerrero was injured before the start of Wednesday's game when he was hit near his left eye by one of his own batted balls while taking BP. Guerrero is listed as day-to-day.
The man behind the mask for the series finale should be Wally Bell who will be making his 14th plate appearance of 2010. Bell has shown no tendencies on the totals with a 6-5-2 'over' mark, 4-4-1 in games listed in the 8½-10 run range. He has been home heavy, however, with hosts winning nine of his previous 13 plate duty affairs.
Fair to partly cloudy skies are in the forecast for Thursday's contest. The thermometer should be in the mid-60s for the start before dropping into the mid-50s overnight. The weathermen are calling for NE winds at 5-10 mph (LF corner to behind the 1B bag).
Texas heads home after this one to begin a seven-game homestand with the Rays and Mariners. Chicago's homestand continues this weekend with the Indians followed by the Tigers to open next week's slate.
The White Sox and Rangers will meet once more this regular season when Chicago travels to Texas for a three-game series over the Fourth of July weekend.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
