The Cleveland Indians visit the New York Yankees on Tuesday night in what could be a high-scoring affair dominated by the bats.
Monday Night Baseball is first on the agenda with the Chicago White Sox at the Minnesota Twins. Chicago is -110 with Jake Peavy facing Francisco Liriano and the total is eight, shaded to the ‘under.’ Kevin Youkilis could make his debut for the South Siders after being acquired from Boston.
Peavy (6-3, 2.74 ERA) seems to be 100 percent healthy now and has a 1.67 road ERA. He threw 125 pitches in his last outing against the Cubs last Tuesday.
Liriano (1-7, 5.74 ERA) has scarily-bad numbers overall, but has a 2.67 ERA in his last five starts. Don Best MLB Analyst Kenny White thinks the demotion to the bullpen fired him up a bit and his slider is working well lately.
Liriana threw a no-hitter his last start against Chicago (May 2011). White believes the White Sox are a very good offensive team, more so with Youkilis, and they have a good shot at making the World Series if they can stay healthy.
Tuesday night starts with a look at St. Louis visiting Miami. The pitching matchup is Kyle Lohse against Carlos Zambrano and this is a ‘pick’ with a total of eight. The Cards had a 6-game winning streak against the Marlins pending Monday’s series opener.
Lohse (6-2, 2.85 ERA) has been pitching very well, especially in June (1.63 ERA). He had a no-hitter going into the seventh against Miami on Opening Day. His road ERA this year (2.83) is slightly better than at home (2.88) and the same thing happened in 2011 (3.13 vs. 3.67).
Zambrano is a pitcher that is purely unpredictable. He walks too many guys (4.55 per nine innings) and has a 7.94 ERA in four starts this month. His last three starts have lasted a combined 9 1/3 innings.
Zambrano has always been a rival of the Cardinals from his days with the Cubs, and is 12-6 lifetime against them with a 3.40 ERA. He will be up for this game.
Also on Tuesday is Cleveland in New York to face the Yankees. The Indians are just a half-game behind the White Sox in the AL Central and will have Justin Masterson on the hill against Phil Hughes.
Masterson (4-6, 3.98 ERA) has been phenomenal his last three starts, allowing just one earned run over 23 innings. He also has nine strikeouts in each of the last two outings (both at home).
Masterson’s road ERA is a big 7.07, but he is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA against the Yanks his last three starts (dating back to 2009). Lefties do hit him well and New York is loaded with them.
Hughes (7-6, 4.94 ERA) has won six of his last nine starts, but has a couple of clunkers in there, including last time out vs. Atlanta (six earned over 4 1/3 innings). His fastball has regained some steam and his June ERA is 3.51 despite the Braves start.
The current betting line is New York -150 with a total of 10. White likes the home team in this battle and also envisions a high-scoring affair with both lineups doing damage.