Tuesday, June 19th

6:10 Miami @ Boston

Tonight begins a three game series between the visiting Miami Marlins and the Boston Red Sox.  Miami comes into the series on a 2 – 10 skid, where they are having a hard time against AL East opponents, going 1 – 5 against Tampa Bay and 1 – 2 against Boston in a series at Miami.  Boston hasn’t been much better, but has an easier schedule over the same span going 5 – 7.

On the mound tonight is Mark Buerhle for the Miami Marlins.  Buerhle on the year has a 5 – 7 record and a 3.41 ERA.  As of his last 5 starts he has a tad higher ERA, but still a respectable 3.82 ERA, giving up 14 runs in his last 33 innings pitched.  On the season Buehrle has not given up more than 4 earned runs in a start and in three out of his last four starts he has only given up 2 earned runs.  Mark has had a rough month of June, getting three consecutive losses while still only allowing 8 runs in those three starts.  The problems haven’t been the pitching for the Marlins, it has been their pitching.  Since June 1^st, they have only average 2.3 runs per game.

Boston has Clay Buchholz starting for them tonight.  On the season Clay has a 7 – 2 record and a whopping 5.38 ERA.  The good news about the ERA is as of late he has been improving, so the ERA is kind of skewed.  In his last 5 starts he has an ERA of just 2.48, giving up 10 earned runs in 36 1/3 innings pitched.  Also, 5 of those last 10 earned runs came 5 games ago when he surrendered 5 earned runs in 5 1/3 innings at Baltimore.  Other than that game he has given up 3 or fewer earned runs since May 11^th.  Boston’s offense seems to be hard to find.  Over their last 10 games they have scored more than 6 runs 3 times.  In all of the other games they have only averaged 2.28 runs. 

Expect Boston and Miami have a hard time to get runs across the plate tonight.  Clay Buchholz is definitely on the upswing after a miserable start to the season and should be able to continue that tonight.  The combination of the great starting pitching and the struggling bats for both teams is the reason that we will be on the under tonight.

Projected score: Miami 2 – Boston 4

Pick: Decent Play Miami @ Boston Under 9.5