Holy freaking NL West battle tonight, dudes. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorite tonight in a huge must win for them as they look to their 22 year old pitching stud, Clayton Kershaw to get the job done against the San Francisco Giants. Only one immense obstacle stands in their way... Tim Lincecum. The Dodgers have never really faired well against “The Freak,” but better change that fate today for numerous reasons. A loss today moves them further down the ladder in the NL West and will most assuredly affect their psyche heading into the dog days. Timmy rocks a career 4-1 record vs his Hollywood pals, and in his most recent start, he snagged the win, went 6 strong and struck out 7 while giving out only four hits. Lincecum had been a little more Earthly to start this season and with the complete lack of consistent support, it was pretty easy to turn your back on the often hefty lines in his favor, but he has been back to his old self over his last two starts. Don't turn your back on the line today. Lincecum is the dog today. At +105, better than even, the back-to-back NL Cy Young award winner heads into a huge division matchup today and I assure you he knows what is at stake. If the Giants are going to make a push for the playoffs in 2010, they are going to have to get fabulous starts from Lincecum the rest of the way. There is no better place to start than tonight, vs the Dodgers. They will look to push them deeper into the depths of the loaded NL West and race for the WC.
I’m sure the Dodgers won’t go quietly, however. Not tonight, not at home. Clayton Kershaw gets the nod in Dodger stadium where he always gives his mates a shot to win. In 64.0 innings this season in the pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, Kershaw is 5-2 with a 3.23 era and has struck out a whopping 77 batters in those innings. Needless to say, Clayton feels comfortable in front of the home folks. Coming off a loss last night to the Giants, the Dodgers find themselves 6 full games back of the division and 2.5 out of the wild card. They will be in desperate search of the win tonight. Which, in my experience, may make them press a little bit. And that won’t be a good situation tonight vs one of the best the National League has to off. This will be an epic battle, and I don’t foresee a lot of runs tonight. Expansive park, mediocre offense, great pitching... take the over, right?
This battle of Aces is a much watch and must play to up the interest.
LOS -125 (Kershaw) v SFO +105 (Lincecum), o/u6.5 ev/-120, and you can’t play the run line here... can you?
Other Tuesday notables:
Grandpa Moyer and The Phils are +170 dogs today @ Carpenter -200. What the hell happened to the Phillies? They wont get any relief today and should find even more trouble scoring against Carpenter. I dont like the juice, but the Cards are the play, especially in a parlay. Be careful with the runline here, as Carpenter is something like 8-12 this season vs it. He doesn’t get the greatest support and coming off a 4 hr night, they may get shut down today... just kinda how it seems to go.
Dempster -250 should roll the Astros +210 tonight after the embarrassing effort on Monday. (great parlay piece for Carpenter.)
Dickey -130 should be all the help the Mets need tonight to get a win out west. They face Enright (who?).
Wakefield @ Braden garners some interest, but I think Braden outpitches Wakefield... maybe. I think I like the o8 -120 here. Neither of these guys have done much of anything lately.
Wade LeBlanc is a +155 dog today at the Braves and Jair Jurrjens. This is going to be a close game, count on that. If you are looking for a nice, fat dog like last night in the Astros and the Indians, this may just be the place to look.
I’m sure the Dodgers won’t go quietly, however. Not tonight, not at home. Clayton Kershaw gets the nod in Dodger stadium where he always gives his mates a shot to win. In 64.0 innings this season in the pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, Kershaw is 5-2 with a 3.23 era and has struck out a whopping 77 batters in those innings. Needless to say, Clayton feels comfortable in front of the home folks. Coming off a loss last night to the Giants, the Dodgers find themselves 6 full games back of the division and 2.5 out of the wild card. They will be in desperate search of the win tonight. Which, in my experience, may make them press a little bit. And that won’t be a good situation tonight vs one of the best the National League has to off. This will be an epic battle, and I don’t foresee a lot of runs tonight. Expansive park, mediocre offense, great pitching... take the over, right?
This battle of Aces is a much watch and must play to up the interest.
LOS -125 (Kershaw) v SFO +105 (Lincecum), o/u6.5 ev/-120, and you can’t play the run line here... can you?
Other Tuesday notables:
Grandpa Moyer and The Phils are +170 dogs today @ Carpenter -200. What the hell happened to the Phillies? They wont get any relief today and should find even more trouble scoring against Carpenter. I dont like the juice, but the Cards are the play, especially in a parlay. Be careful with the runline here, as Carpenter is something like 8-12 this season vs it. He doesn’t get the greatest support and coming off a 4 hr night, they may get shut down today... just kinda how it seems to go.
Dempster -250 should roll the Astros +210 tonight after the embarrassing effort on Monday. (great parlay piece for Carpenter.)
Dickey -130 should be all the help the Mets need tonight to get a win out west. They face Enright (who?).
Wakefield @ Braden garners some interest, but I think Braden outpitches Wakefield... maybe. I think I like the o8 -120 here. Neither of these guys have done much of anything lately.
Wade LeBlanc is a +155 dog today at the Braves and Jair Jurrjens. This is going to be a close game, count on that. If you are looking for a nice, fat dog like last night in the Astros and the Indians, this may just be the place to look.
