Wednesday, June 13th

6:05 Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

Last night Baltimore took the first game with an 8 – 6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Tonight Pittsburgh will try to get a win to tie the series and help with their standings in an attainable NL Central.

Pittsburgh will be bringing Kevin Correia to the mound tonight.  Correia on the year has a 2 – 5 record with an ERA of 4.29.  In his last 5 starts he has an ERA of 5.40, but can be deceiving since his oldest start in that group was his worst outing giving up 6 runs in only 3 2/3 innings pitched against the Miami Marlins.  If that game is taken out then his last 4 starts result in an ERA of under 4.00.  In those starts he has been pretty consistent giving up 2 or 3 runs in each start, and the long ball has been a major problem.  He has given up 10 runs in his last 5 games and also during that period he has given up 6 homeruns.  If he could be able to keep the ball in the park tonight it could be an easy victory for Pittsburgh.  As a team Pittsburgh has been hot as of late with winning 7 out of their last 10 with their bats to thank; averaging 5 runs a game over that span.

Jake Arrieta will be starting for the Baltimore Orioles tonight.  As of late Arrieta has had some problems it appears by looking into his stats.  In his last game alone he gave up 9 earned runs and in his last five he has given up 24 runs for an ERA of 8.42.  He also only has a 2 – 8 record with his last win coming all the way back on May 2^nd,  after May 2^nd he is 0-6 in 7 decisions. Baltimore has been able to keep winning with a record in June of 6 – 4, with Arrieta accounting for two of those losses.  Let’s see if we can make it three.

It seems that the money line for Pittsburgh seems a little high and could be another golden opportunity for us to gain some more units.  I would have expected them to be in the pick’em range (-105 to -110) so to see them at +130 is a welcomed surprise.  With the way Arrieta has been pitching lately it seems like common sense to see if we can get some Pittsburgh runs and stay ahead of Baltimore.

Projected score: Pittsburgh 6 – Baltimore 4

Pick: Underdog Special Pittsburgh (+130)