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Despite seemingly being sellers at the deadline, the Pirates now find themselves just a game out of the second Wild Card in the National League after defeating the Giants yesterday. It’s hard to say if they are for real as they have gone with more of a youth movement for their pitching and got rid of some bad apples or if this is just a case of playing the Giants who are really struggling right now.
San Francisco is now 1.5 games out of first place in the NL West and just 9-21 in the second half. This comes after leading the division by as many as eight games and making some serious win now moves at the deadline, acquiring Matt Moore and Will Smith. They still lead the NL Wild Card somewhat comfortably with a two game lead over the Cardinals and three game lead over the Pittsburgh. We’ve seen bad second halves from this team in the past and on even years they usually win the World Series anyways. This is a team I’ll have my eye on the rest of the way.
The Giants begin a series with the Mets tonight who have had some struggles of their own as of late. This could be an interesting series as the Mets at 60-60 are on their last breath here and should be desperate to win this one.
MLB Betting Tips:
The Orioles start a series with the Astros tonight and the Astros find themselves in a similar position as the Mets. Houston is 61-59 and 5.5 games out of the Wild Card in the American League. It’s looking more and more like that bad start is going to cost this team a playoff spot. They send rookie Joseph Musgrove to the mound tonight who has looked great in his first two starts of the season. The only problem for him is tonight he draws a very tough match-up as he faces the hard hitting Orioles in Baltimore. Long term I’m a big Musgrove fan, but tonight I think he gets the rude awakening that all rookie pitchers get. Orioles -126.
We mentioned the Giants early and tonight that game brings us our best pitching match-up as Jacob deGrom faces off against Cy Young frontrunner Madison Bumgarner. The Giants ace is having the best season of his career with a 2.11 ERA on the season, but the wins haven’t been there of late. The Giants are just 3-8 over his past eleven starts as the run support has just not been there. Jacob deGrom can relate as the Mets have averaged just 3.46 runs per start for him. The Giants are a mess right now and I think the line on this one is just a bit too high based on their play. Taking a flier on the Mets +160 as the Mets have been going better in his starts as of late.
We end with one of the hottest teams in baseball right now, the Mariners +116. Hisashi Iwakuma has been great in the second half with a 5-1 record and 2.52 ERA. Matt Shoemaker has been having a good season as well, but the Mariners have handled him this year as he’s 0-2 against them with an ERA over eight runs. We’re riding this Seattle streak until it does us wrong.
