First the recap. Won easily with the Cubs last night as they beat up the A's 6-2. For today, I'm breaking down the Rockies/Twins game. Twins have taken the first 2 in this series winning 9-3 in Game 1 and a nail biter yesterday with a 2-1 win. Rockies turn it around today folks. Classic pitching match up we got here with Jimenez and Liriano on the mound. Both pitchers have been spectacular as of late as Liriano has won his last 3 starts and Jimenez has won his last 2 starts. Couple things that have caught my eye in this one. For starters the Rockies are a good inter league team. They are 16-6 in their last 22 inter league games, and that's counting the last 2 they just lost against the Twins. Going even deeper, you will see that the Rockies are 6-1 in their last 7 in inter league play against left-handed starters which I'm glad to see because the Rockies do not hit lefties all that well. Rockies love when Ubaldo pitches apparently, they are 6-0 in his last 6 starts against a team with a winning record, 5-1 in his last six starts in Game 3 of a series, and a tremendous record of 21-5 in his last 26 starts as a road favorite. Point is the Rockies have faith in their, ace and they do what they gotta do to get him the win. Now the bad news for Twins backers. Twins don't play well on Thursday's for some reason when Liriano takes the rubber. They are a cash draining 1-6 in his last 7 starts on the 4th day of the week. Twins don't fare any better in Game 3 of a series. They are 0-4 their last 4 during Game 3's of a series. I dug deeper I found out that they are 3-7 in Game 3's coming off a win and the Rockies are 4-2 coming off a loss in Game 3's. Not exactly great news for anyone that likes the Twins, know what I'm saying? Now onto the Umpire. We got Jerry Crawford behind the plate for today's pitching duel. Another negative for Twin's backers. Home teams are 3-6 in 9 of his home plate starts this year. This same ump called Jimenez's opening day start back in April against the Brewers. The result was 8 innings pitched, 1 Run, 6 k's, and got the Win. Ubaldo threw an amazing 99 pitches this game and guess what? Mr. Crawford called 66 of them strikes. That's 66%! And last but not least, the road team is 4-1 in Crawfords last 5 Thursday games behind home plate. So there you have it folks. My money will be on the Colorado Rockies tomorrow afternoon, how about you? Fade or play, best of luck my friends.
As always, for good measure. A few other trends that I liked for this matchup:
Twins are 3-10 in their last 13 games as an underdog.
Twins are 1-4 in their last 5 after scoring 2 runs or less in their previous game.
Twins are 1-4 in their last 5 when their opponent allows 2 runs or less in their previous game.
Colorado Rockies -110 {Listed}
As always, for good measure. A few other trends that I liked for this matchup:
Twins are 3-10 in their last 13 games as an underdog.
Twins are 1-4 in their last 5 after scoring 2 runs or less in their previous game.
Twins are 1-4 in their last 5 when their opponent allows 2 runs or less in their previous game.
Colorado Rockies -110 {Listed}
