Will Rhys Hoskins continue his dominance against Pablo Lopez?...

Forgotten about in May when they were languishing at 12-24 ...

Sweep Potential

Can SMU start their first season as a Power 4 program off with a bang?

Northwestern plays at a temporary field when it opens vs. Miami of Ohio. ...

Here are the early bets I made after the NFL schedule release ...

The Royals have beat the White Sox 9 out of 10 times and 7 out of 8 this season. Most of their wins in the last 10 games have been by 2 runs or more except one 2-1 game. They faced Jonathan Cannon in April, Cannon allowed three hits and one run in five innings but they lost 4-2. Brady Singer is pitching extremely well allowing one run in four straight games before his last start. The Royals get the win, again vs. the White Sox, which is essentially why they are eight games above .500.

When one book among ours has an outlier number, I generally play it. Oh, I get what said book is doing trying to bring in some action on the "other" side or whatever. So kudos it worked. Just another reason to shop, shop, shop around (and now I'll punch this to 9.5). Both starting pitchers have ERAs under 3.00. Sorry, it's Saturday and for once not 105 in Florida (yet) so gonna be brief so I can breathe air that doesn't feel like I'm stuck inside two pieces of hot buttered toast. Can't remember last time I had toast but dang it now I'm hungry ...

The Arizona Diamondbacks had an impressive 5-2 win Friday over the Chicago Cubs. Saturday they find themselves as sizable favorites despite Zac Gallen’s recent struggles. Prior to the All Star break he had issues in three straight outings, including allowing six runs in one inning. Look for a bounce back spot from Gallen, and for the Diamondbacks lineup to have success against Kyle Hendricks for the second time this season.

All of a sudden, the A's have dynamite in their bats, scoring 31 runs across the past two games vs. the Phils and Angels, 13 of those coming last night at the Coliseum! Today, Oakland looks to rumble again vs. Halos rookie Jack Kochanowicz, who was obliterated by the Mariners when last seen eight nights ago, allowing five runs (four earned) and seven hits in just 3 IP of an 11-0 loss. Oakland has now won four in a row at home over the Halos by a 30-8 count since July 2, and can again outscore the Angels, who might make it a better fight today against recently-struggling Mitch Spence. Play Angels-A's "Over"

Roddery Munoz, somehow, had the start of his career last time out against the Mets, but he's been pretty awful outside of that. Since that outing he has a 7.35 FIP, with just 15 Ks to 14 W in 25 1/3 IP allowing an OPS of .909. Mets lineup has stabilizing since Francisco Alvarez returned, helping get Pete Alonso and Brandon Nimmo unlocked. Luis Severino has been erratic for the Mets (with one strong start and one poor one vs the Fish), but has been better in day games. I think the Mets run Munoz off early and can eliminate facing the high-leverage LH power arms in the Miami pen

The White Sox don't do much good unless Garrett Crochet, Erik Fedde or Drew Thorpe are on the mound and none of them are starting tonite. Chicago is 3-10 in July with 7 losses of 2+ runs. They have lost 5 in a row and 4 by 3 runs or less in that span. Brady Singer has been a stud for the Royals, he has a 2.72 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in his spacious home ballpark (.204 average allowed) and has allowed 1 ER or less in 4 of his last 5 starts and had yielded just 3 ER in 11 1/3 vs the Pale Hose this season. Royals erratic bats should be able to get us 5-6 runs tonite which will get us home.

Pitching into the 6th inning against a team like Baltimore is never an easy task but Max Scherzer got 16 outs to beat this line in late June against the O's. He was pulled for a left on left matchup that day and because it was his 2nd start of the season for Texas. Despite going four innings last time out, it wasn't all bad, as he reached the 5th inning with relative ease but was pulled after loading the bases. I'm expecting Scherzer's pitch count to hit the 90's again if he's pitching well, a mark he hit in 2/3 July starts, while pitching into the 7th inning both times. I think this settles at 16.5 so I'll play the over now.

Hey, didn't the Tigers disappear from the AL Central race last month? Well, don't look now, but they're coming back, now with wins in nine of eleven after pulling out a clutch 5-4 win out of the break last night in Toronto as they try to re-enter AL wild card discussions. We know things have improved for Detroit because it is now winning starts made by Reese Olson, three of four in fact, after losing 12 of 13 with him on the mound prior. Olson has helped his cause with a 2.40 ERA in those last four, a far cry from Blue Jays counterpart Yusei Kikuchi, with a 7.53 ERA his last six starts, and five of those Toronto losses. Play Tigers on Money Line

Now I must say that a lot of systems were messed up by that Skynet issue on Friday (Termaaanated. Naaaybahh! I like Arnold). And I can't see every book where I am because of some state limitations. But this is a stupid number and I don't care if Judge yaks one off the third deck on the first pitch he sees. This indicates essentially a 36% chance he DOES go yard. Silliness. And those odds don't take into account being intentionally walked, tweak an injury, etc. I'm not playing this every day -- AJ isn't my Bizarro Martin Maldonado -- but come on. If the books wanna get stupid. Let's get stupid.