Join us as we preview the first two games of the Reds and Cubs series as Chicago travels to Great American Ballpark. The Reds are a season high 24 games over .500 while the Cubs are in the dumps with a 46-70 record. Surely the Reds should come out victorious, right?
Game 1
Travis Wood will face the same team that had traded him away
tonight as a 2 to 1 underdog while Bronson Arroyo takes the ball for the Reds.
The Cubs could be actually feeling a little good about themselves as they are
coming off a 7-2 hammering of the Astros, and at this point any win makes this
team giddy, being they have been hard to come by. The Mets just snapped the
Reds five game winning streak, and overall Cinncy is playing .500 ball in their
last ten games.
Travis Wood
Wood has been up and down all year long, and he has had some
tremendous outings to go with his bad ones. I believe that us baseball bettors can catch him in a
very good spot tonight, as he will certainly be jacked up looking to take it to
his former team, once again. Wood has been very good in his last three starts
with an ERA of 2.50 and a 1.11 WHIP while giving up just 13 hits in 18 innings
pitched. Ironically enough, Travis is coming off his best start of the season, where
he faced the Reds and went seven strong innings, giving up just 1 earned run
while striking out eight, so he is certainly going to feel very confident going
into this one, knowing that he has already shut this line up down.
Lately the Reds have struggled against lefties, hitting just
.250 as a team, with a .300 OBP, but they are averaging 4 runs per game in
their last ten against LHP.
Bronson Arroyo
The innings on the old crafty vet could be starting to take their
toll. Arroyo has been around a very long time, and he could be at the end of
his run. It is amazing that he has been able to put up decent numbers in that
home run friendly ball park that he pitches in, but in his last three starts
things have not been so stellar. Arroyo has been tuned up for an ERA of 5.12
with a 1.29 WHIP, while giving up 22 hits in 19 innings pitched.
Despite all of that, Arroyo has put up great numbers against
Chicago in his career, with a 10-9 record and a 2.94 ERA while striking out
106. Bronson is also coming off a start against the Cubs here he went a rock
solid 8 innings pitched, scattering just five hits, two earned runs and four
Ks.
MLB odds makers have opened the OVER/UNDER at 8.5, and we all
know baseball is all about pitching, and with the way these starters have owned
the opposing teams lately, we are going to take the UNDER here. Neither team is
tearing the cover off the ball either, in the Cubs last ten games they are
averaging just 3.52 runs per 9 innings while the Reds are averaging just under
four runs per game.
MLB Picks: We will go with the UNDER 8.1 in Game 1.
Saturday afternoon’s matchup is scheduled for 1:10 EST time
slot, and fans will be in for a great pitching duel with Jeff Samardizja
matched up against Johnny Cueto.
Cueto will be looking to earn his 16th victory of the season,
as he just keeps rolling along. The man seems to get stronger with every start,
and in his his last three, he has given up just 17 hits in 22 innings pitched
with a WHIP of 0.90 and 2.82 ERA. On the year Cueto has a record of 15-6, with
a 2.45 ERA while striking out 127 batters on the year.
Like Cueto, Jeff Smardijza is getting stronger as the year
goes along as well. In his last three he has gone 19 innings giving up just 16
hits with a 1.09 WHIP and 3.26 ERA. Jeff
is coming off a game against the Astros in which he struck out 11 batters,
bringing his total to 141 on the year in 139 innings pitched. The Reds are
heavy strike out team, so he should be able to rack up the Ks once again.
This is going to be a series where runs are going to be very
hard to come by. They aren't getting any breaks here, facing very good pitching
in the first two games of this series and we also like the UNDER in Game 2 of
this series.
MLB Picks: Play the UNDER for Game 1 and Game 2 as this will be a series
dominated by pitching.