A makeup from a mid-May rainout looms large on the abbreviated MLB betting schedule on Thursday when the Colorado Rockies host the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Rockies continue their pursuit of the wild-card leading Phillies when the two teams meet tonight at Coors Field to make up a May rainout. Right-handers Joe Blanton and Jhoulys Chacin draw the starting assignments in the one-and-done affair in the Mile High city with Chacin earning the baseball money line favorite role at -140.
The suddenly surging Phillies have taken the West by storm, the NL West Division that is. Philadelphia began its latest road trip with a three-game sweep of San Diego and followed that up by taking two out of three in Los Angeles.
In Wednesday’s 5-1 victory over the Dodgers, Roy Oswalt allowed just one hit over 6 1/3 innings to get the win, improving to 10-13 overall but a sparkling 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA in seven starts with the Phillies. He’s now a combined 56-20 in August and September during his career and he’s given his new club the kind of late season lift they were hoping for when they acquired him from the Astros. Get the Philadelphia betting odds here.
Philadelphia is 75-58 and three-games behind first-place Atlanta in the National League East Division, but leads the wild-card race by 1 ½ games over San Francisco.
Apparently the pitching ‘bug’ is contagious in Philadelphia. Oswalt, Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels you would expect to be better than average at this point in the season. But Blanton (6-6, 5.15 ERA) has been every bit as good. The former Oakland A’s star is unbeaten in his last seven outings going 3-0 with a 3.27 ERA in that stretch - including a win over Colorado on July 26. He’s walked just one batter in his last 19 1/3 innings of work and is 2-0 over his last three starts with a 1.86 ERA over that stretch.
Colorado (69-63) had won seven of eight before dropping the final two games of the series in San Francisco. Wednesday’s loss was especially hard to stomach as Tim Lincecum out-dueled Ubaldo Jimenez 2-1. The loss dropped the Rockies 5 ½ games behind the Phillies in the wild-card race but they remained seven games behind the first-place Padres who lost their seventh straight game.
There’s definitely no place like home for the Rocks who have gone 8-18 road since the All-Star break while losing seven of their eight road series. Now Jim Tracy’s troops return home to the friendly confines of Coors Field where they’ve dominated the opposition, posting a 43-21 record. Colorado has been a true Jekyll and Hyde story for this year MLB betting. At home they’re hitting an MLB best .298 while averaging 5.8 runs per game but on the road they’re hitting nearly 70 points lower and scoring just 3.5 RPG.
Carlos Gonzalez continues to be the Rockies main man on offense. The 24-year-old outfielder went 3-for-4 including a home run against Lincecum and is 17-for-33 (.515) with five homers and 13 RBIs during a nine-game hitting streak. Overall he’s hit 30 home runs with 92 RBIs and a .326 batting average. He also leads the team in steals with 20 and is arguably the best young outfielder in the game.
The Rockies will send Chacin (7-9, 3.79) to the bump against the Phillies. The 22-year-old has allowed one run and seven hits over 14 2/3 innings while winning back-to-back starts. He’ll be making his first career start against Philadelphia after a pair of relief appearances.
The Phils are 11-2 on the road since the start of August while Colorado has won 12 of 15 at home. The Rockies are 4-17 against the NL champions since the start of 2008, including a four-game defeat in last year’s NLDS. Philadelphia also owns a 5-1 advantage this season.
The MLB betting total for tonight’s contest is nine and it’s worth noting that Philly is on runs of 8-1 to the ‘under’ in their last nine road games and 8-1 to the low side when ‘dogged. The Denver weather forecast is calling for partly cloudy skies and a game time temperature of 73 degrees.