MLB Baseball Betting for August 7, 2016
Full card in Major League Baseball for Sunday:
MLB BASEBALL BETTING FOR AUGUST 7, 2016:
CINCINNATI REDS AT PITTSBURGH PIRATES:
The Cincinnati Reds have been playing much better in the second half of the season but so far in this series it’s been ‘the same old same old’. The Pirates won the first game of the series on Friday by a final score of 3-2 and took Saturday’s game by a final score of 5-3. They weren’t’ embarrassed in either game but they’re still losses and now the Reds are just 5-5 in their last 10 games. They’re 24 games out of first place and will be 5.5 games behind fourth place Milwaukee at the end of play tonight (Milwaukee is pummeling Arizona 15-4 in the top of the ninth). The Pirates have been in awful form of late losing 6 of 10 even with the two victories in this series. They’re in a position where they really need to start winning baseball games if they’re going to have a shot at making the postseason. They’re just 2 games back of the second place St. Louis Cardinals but the bigger problem is that the NL Central leading Chicago Cubs have all of a sudden come back to life winning six straight and nine of their last ten. Pittsburgh is now 12.5 games behind Chicago and from the looks of things they can’t count on the Cubs’ erratic play any more.
The Reds were the biggest embarrassment in baseball just a month or so ago but they’re playing pretty solid ball of late. Even the positions that were giving them fits earlier this season–the bullpen, for example, are starting to come together in the second half. Pittsburgh’s offense has been shoddy in the past week–heading into Saturday’s game they were hitting .174 and averaging just 2.9 runs per game over their past seven. With the capable Dan Straily on the mound for Cincinnati there’s every reason to think that the Reds can avoid the sweep.
BET CINCINNATI REDS +160 OVER PITTSBURGH PIRATES
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS AT WASHINGTON NATIONALS:
The San Francisco Giants are a pretty inexplicable team. They’ve been in horrible form for what seems like months but they’ve managed to hold on to first place in the NL West. In theory, baseball isn’t a sport where you can get by with nothing put ‘timely wins’ but the Giants have done just that and they got another one on Saturday as they chased the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg en route to a 7-1 win. Matt Cain had been struggling lately but he’s turned in back to back gems against the Nationals. In Saturday’s game and the 7/31 game at San Francisco Cain has pitched 10 innings of shutout baseball allowing just five hits.
The Washington Nationals, on the other hand, have no sense of timing whatsoever. This was an important game for them and they didn’t show up. Superstar Bryce Harper left the game with a ‘stiff neck’ and it was a bad effort top to bottom. Now they try to get back in winning form facing lefthander Madison Bumgarner who has pitched reasonably well lately (with the exception of his last start) but the Giants are 0-3 in his last three. Bumgarner is coming off a bad start at Philadelphia (5 IP, 20 H, 4 ER) but in the two previous games went 15 innings allowing 3 ER striking out 9 to just 3 walks. Washington is dead even against left handers this season (14-11 for -0.1 units) and hits lefthanders fairly well.
Washington will start right hander Tannar Roark who hasn’t been in spectacular form though the Nats have won 2 of his last 3 starts. Roark has a 3.07 ERA and 1.194 WHIP for the season with a 2.79 ERA and a 1.169 WHIP at home. The Nationals have won 13 of his 22 starts this season including 6 of 11 at home. He’s got a 4.42 ERA and a 1.200 WHIP in his last three. Truth be told, those numbers are largely the result of one bad game (7/22 against San Diego). In his last two starts he’s pitched 13 1/3 innings allowing a total of 4 earned runs. That won’t get you a Cy Young Award but it’s not too bad.
There’s plenty of reasons to favor the Nationals here–at least statistically. They’ve been a maddeningly streaky team during 2016 and could be due for a downturn at any moment. San Francisco needs every win they can get and we like their chances here with Bumgarner and (possibly) no Bryce Harper in the lineup for Washington.
BET SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS -105 OVER WASHINGTON NATIONALS