Saturday is scheduled for a full slate of MLB games, but we have narrowed our picks down to two games that we feel good enough about putting them into a parlay. See what we have in store for you today.
Atlanta Braves vs. New York Mets
Johan Santana will make his return from the DL, and yet he
finds himself nearly an underdog in his home ball park at most online baseball
betting sites, while some still have him -105. Santana had an ERA of 13.50 in
three starts in July, and he is now facing a red hot Braves team, who have won
13 of their last 16. Current Braves hitters have owned Santana and see the ball
out of his hand as well as they do against any other pitcher in the league.
Atlanta hitters have 241 at bats against Johan with 74 hits for a batting
average of .304 and a crazy high .824 OPS.
The Mets recently had a 9 game home losing streak, and it
looks like their streak could be starting again as they fell 4-0 last night.
New York has now lost six in a row to Atlanta while being outscored 48-22.
Kris Medlen
The Braves will counter Johan Santana with Kris Medlen, who
has been rock solid as of late with a 1.74 ERA, 1.27 WHIP in his last 10
innings pitched. Medlen was in the Atlanta bullpen for most of the year, but he
posted outstanding numbers such as a 50% ground ball rate and a 2.37 ERA. In
fact, he was so good; Atlanta was forced to move him to the rotation. Medlen
has repaid the Braves well for the move, and since joining the rotation, Kris
has an ERA of 1.23.
Johan Santana is certainly going to have some rust coming off
the DL, and even before he hit the disabled list, his surgically repaired
shoulder had started to wear down. The baseball odds makers clearly are
favoring the Braves here with this game being virtually a Pick Em’, and so will
we.
MLB Picks: The Braves -110 is our first leg of the parlay.
Oakland A’s vs. Chicago
White Sox
Our next game features the Oakland Athletics and Chicago
White Sox. MLB odds makers have opened up the Sox a -140 favorite with their newly acquired ace
Francisco Liriano taking the mound.
Liriano
So far it looks like the White Sox have gotten an absolute
steal in giving up a bag of balls for Francisco Liriano. The change of venue is
working out perfectly, and since joining the South Side, Liriano has given up a
combined 3 earned runs and 8 hits in 11 innings pitched while striking out 12. This
is a huge boost to the White Sox rotation, and when this guy’s head in screwed
on straight he is one of the most dominate lefties in the game.
The White Sox are coming off a walk off HR by Jordan Danks
last night against Oakland, so their spirits are certainly flying high. Oakland’s
spirits, however, may be deflating, being that they have lost 6 of their last
10 after going on that huge run.
Oakland counters with Travis Blackley
Blackley will be thrown back into the rotation once again
after being thrown into the bullpen. In his last 3 outings, Blackley has an ERA
of 4.67 with a 1.33 WHIP. In his last relief outing, he went 2 innings giving
up 3 earned runs, while serving up 2 deeps balls. Also, in his last start he
lasted just 5 innings, surrendering 6 hits, 5 earned and another long ball to
go along with 4 BB. This kid just isn't set out to be a Major League starter,
and he is going to have major problems with a White Sox line up that is
averaging close to 5 runs per game against lefties this year.
Oakland’s success has come from their starting rotation, and
as we noted Blackley has not been a part of that. That being said; a major edge
goes to the White Sox on the mound today. With Liriano dealing as of late and
the A's hitting a dreadful .214 as team against lefties, we really like the
White Sox to handle Oakland today. Chicago is 31-25 in their home ball park
while Oakland just 26-26 on the road.
MLB Picks: We'll add the White Sox -140 to the final leg of our two
team parlay.
MLB Parlay: So the MLB picks that we are adding to our parlay of the day is Atlanta -105 and White Sox -140.
A 50$ bet on this would pay out $117.35.
Best of luck everybody!