MLB Baseball
2012-04-27 - Tampa Bay Rays at Texas Rangers
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Friday 27 April 2012 - First Pitch 8:05pm ET
1:05am (British Standard Time)
Preview
The Tampa Bay Rays (12-7) swept the LA Angels at home in their last series to join the Baltimore Orioles at the top of the American League East and they have now extended their winning run to 5 consecutive games. A win tonight would see them reach their longest winning streak in a single season since July 2010.
That won't be easy as they face the American League winners of last season, the Texas Rangers (15-4), a team that have started 2012 by proving they are still the ones to beat in this League. The Rangers took the final two games of a three game set against the New York Yankees and have now won the first six series of the season for the first time in their history.
Matt Harrison will be given the ball for the Rangers as he looks to maintain the best ERA of the starting pitchers for Texas. Harrison is 3-0 this season with a 1.66 ERA and is coming off just under 8 innings pitched against the Detroit Tigers when he gave up 3 runs.
This is only the third time Harrison will have faced the Tampa Bay Rays- he won his only regular season start against them in 2008 and he was responsible for pitching in the winning game against them in the Division Series of the Play Offs last season when allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings.
Tampa Bay will look to keep this batting line up quiet by sending James Shields to the mound. Shields is 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA this season, but he has won 3 consecutive starts with a 1.11 ERA after being tagged for 6 runs by the New York Yankees in his first start.
The pitcher gave up 7 runs in over 5 innings pitched against the Rangers in the post-season last year and was also the loser in Game 2 when they met in 2010. Shields has been better in the regular season, going 3-0 and with a 0.75 ERA in his last 3 starts against the Rangers.
Head to Head
Texas won the last 3 games between the two teams, although all of those were in the post-season.
The Rangers won the season series 5-4 in the regular season, meaning they are now 9-5 in the last 14 games in the overall series.
Texas are 9-3 at home in the last 12 regular season meetings between the teams.
Prediction
These two pitchers are ridiculously closely matched in terms of ability and performance so far this season, but I think the Texas batting line up is the more consistent so I am going to back them, for small stakes, to make that tell on the run line.
Tampa Bay have really been swinging the bats well in recent games, but so have Texas and I think the Rangers have more positive memories from facing James Shields than the Rays have of facing Matt Harrison.
The other element where Texas may have the edge is in clutch hitting and they seem to find a way to extend innings when they get going. I can just imagine them hitting a clutch shot at the right time to see them home in this one and the 2.50 they win by a couple of runs looks decent.
Only 4 of the 15 Rangers wins so far this season have come by one run, so the extra risk is worth taking.
The Pick :
Texas Rangers 5-2 Tampa Bay Rays
