MLB Baseball Betting for September 13, 2016
Full card of baseball for Tuesday as the pennant races start to get serious. We’ll be back later in the week with coverage and betting selections in college and NFL football. Good start on NFL selections with three plays and three winners on Tampa Bay, New England and Pittsburgh.
MLB BASEBALL BETTING FOR SEPTEMBER 13, 2016:
NEW YORK METS AT WASHINGTON NATIONALS:
In theory, this should be a very important series for the New York Mets. Or is it? New York has played well over the past few weeks but dropped the opening game to the Nationals on Monday. Washington got a nice performance from Mat Latos and the bullpen en route to an easy 8-1 win. With Monday’s loss the Mets are 10 games back of the NL East leading Nationals with 18 games left to play. Washington also has 18 games left on their schedule and can essentially ‘run out the clock’ unless they suffer a dramatic reversal of fortune. They’ve had their ups and downs this year but are playing their best baseball at the perfect time of the season. They’ve also taken care of business against their divisional rivals including the Mets whom they have a record of 11-6 against this year.
The Mets are likely getting frustrated as well. They’ve been on a nice run winning 9 of their last 13 but there’s just one problem–the Nationals have won 10 of their last 13 meaning that New York has actually *lost* ground during their current run. Their focus should turn to the wildcard standings but it can’t be easy to play such good baseball and still have to fight tooth and nail to just make the playoffs. New York is currently in the second National League wildcard spot trailing the San Francisco Giants in the top spot by 2 games. A bigger concern is the St. Louis Cardinals just 1/2 game back. Best case scenario–the Mets are one of three teams vying for two wildcard spots. Miami, Pittsburgh and Colorado are also within single digits but they need to stop losing very quickly if they’re going to get into the mix.
New York starts right hander Noah Syndergaard here and he’s reached rock star status in his second year as a pro. Part of that is due to his long hair but he’s also pitched well. Syndergaard has a 2.49 ERA and 1.145 WHIP overall with the Mets winning 17 of his 27 starts. On the road, he’s got a 2.45 ERA and a 1.268 WHIP with New York winning 9 of his 12 assignments. He’s been particularly sharp in his most recent starts in which the Mets went 2-1. Syndergard went 19 innings over this stretch allowing 11 hits, 3 earned runs and 1 home run while striking out 18 against 7 walks. His recent starts deserve a little deeper analysis since the Mets two victories came against weak hitting Philadelphia at home and last place Cincinnati on the road. To be fair, he pitched well against the Nationals on September 2 going 7 innings allowing 2 ER and 3 hits though the Mets went on to drop a 4-1 loss to Washington. Syndergaard is 0-3 for the season against the Mets though he pitched well in two of his three starts.
Washington will start right hander A.J. Cole. The Nationals have won only one of his four starts this season–that win came in the aforementioned matchup against the Mets and Syndergaard on 9/2. New York is 58-51 -8.9 units against right handers this season but the real concern is their weak offensive output. They’re a poor hitting team in all situations with a team batting average of .243 (#28 in the Majors). They’re even worse against right handers with a .238 batting average putting up 3.9 runs per game.
This game could play out a lot like the meeting on September 2. It doesn’t matter how well Syndergaard pitches if his team doesn’t give him run support.
BET WASHINGTON NATIONALS +130 OVER NEW YORK METS
PITTSBURGH PIRATES AT PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES:
One team that has definitely ‘packed it in’ for the season is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Their fans and the local media might suggest that they did this several months ago. This has been a horrible year all around for Pittsburgh and the team has compounded the problem with the *way* they’ve played. When local beat writers are suggesting that a team has ‘quit caring’ immediately after the All Star Break it isn’t good. They’ve had some injuries but this isn’t a valid excuse. The Los Angeles Dodgers have had a record number of players on the disabled list this season and they’re in first place in the NL West.
Pittsburgh has lost second baseman Josh Harrison for the rest of the year and that’s the last thing a team needs when they’ve lost 11 of their last 13 games. There’s been surprisingly little talk in the local media about manager Clint Hurdle but the way this team has ‘competed’ this year is a direct reflection on him. He should be fired the day after the season ends. He’s also done a poor job at managing personnel. The Bucs’ beat writers are practically begging him to ‘shut down’ the team’s young pitchers and suggesting that Hurdle is in need of a ‘wake up call’ that the season is for all intents and purposes over. The fact that a bank robber in Miami Beach was caught on surveillance film wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates cap might be the best thing to happen to the team today.
Ivan Nova has pitched well of late and that’s why the Pirates are favored here. Philadelphia will start right hander Alec Asher who looked very sharp in his only start of the year going 6 innings on 9/8 at Washington allowing just 2 hits and 0 earned runs. The caveat to Nova’s recent form is the opposition he faced in his last three starts was marginal at best (Milwaukee twice, Cincinnati). His YTD ERA is 4.03 and not sure that justifies being a road chalk on such a lousy team. Philadelphia has lost a little money against RHP this year (-1.6 units) but Pittsburgh’s performance against right handers is pitiful: 51-64 -24.5 units. We’ll take the home team as a dog here.
BET PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES +140 OVER PITTSBURGH PIRATES