With one week to go in July, its showdown weekend in the National League. Ten teams are above .500 on the senior circuit and eight of them play each other in three-game sets beginning tonight.
St. Louis and new acquisition Matt Holliday take on the champion Phillies. The Giants are in Coors taking on the Rockies in a matchup of the top two teams in the Wild Card chase. Atlanta travels to Milwaukee and the Marlins are out west facing the Dodgers. Toss in a battle for first place between the Tigers and White Sox and the Twins playing the Angels in the American League, combined with the scuttlebut of the looming trade deadline, and an intriguing weekend of bases will surely ensue.
We’re staying up late tonight. We like the matchups and are going to the window. Here’s on who and why:
Giants +119 over the Rockies. I hate betting against the home team at Coors, but this has not been a real vintage Colorado team in Denver with a pedestrian 25-20 record. The Giants struggle on the road, but they have Matt Cain going tonight. The Giants are 14-5 in his starts, including wins in five of their last seven on the road. Cain has 15 starts where he has given up 2 earned runs or less, 12 with only one or less. Rockies could end up winning the series in the end, but they’ll be in a 1-0 hole after tonight.
Dodgers -150 over Marlins. We’re fading an ace. Hopefully that works better than backing them has for me. Dodgers have been the best home team all season. It’s not like they have some srcub pitching tonight in Kershaw, whose season has rivaled Johnson’s, his counterpart tonight. I like having the best home team in baseball at such a cheap number with one of the better hurlers on the mound.
Angels -150 over Twins. I’ll take Lackey tonight against a Twins team he has had a lot of recent success against. Sigh. Guess I will never learn since I am back on an Ace again.
We ended up going 4-5 last weekend in our foray into the world of baseball. Some of the money came back on Sunday, but I was nowhere near a computer to blog. But, for integrity’s sake, those games aren’t being included as we keep track. For now, I like the routine of making small bets on the weekend. It’s helping to scratch the itch thats become a bit more noticeable as football season approaches.
