MLB Betting Previews- Tuesday, April 17 Parlay
The 2012 MLB regular season enters its second full week a games with a few teams making an early sprint out of the gate with a few others off to a surprisingly slow start.
There are no surprises for Tuesday’s two-team parlay as we have uncovered a solid play among the 15 games on the slate.
Game 1- Tampa Bay Rays (5-5) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (5-4)
Money Line: Tampa Bay +125 Toronto -135
Total Line: 7.5
Tampa Bay will kick-off this three-game AL East set with right-hander Jeff Niemann as its starter. He will be making his second start of the regular season after giving-up three earned runs on four hits in five innings of work in a loss to Detroit last Thursday. Lifetime against the Blue Jays, Niemann is 4-3 with a 5.23 ERA in 11 previous starts.
Ricky Romero will get the call for Toronto as its starter. He is coming off a spectacular outing against Boston last Wednesday in which he held the Red Sox to just one run in 8.1 innings of work. The left hander is 5-4 against the Rays with an ERA of 3.18.
The Blue Jays have not fared so well against the Rays at home in recent memory; going 2-6 in the last eight games, but Romero is in excellent form and the Toronto bat have been clicking so far with 47 runs in nine games. Stick with the Blue Jays to pound-out a win at home in the front-end of this parlay. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
Game 2- Cincinnati Reds (4-6) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (7-3)
Money Line: Cincinnati +130 St. Louis -145
Total Line: 7
Right hander Johnny Cueto will quickly get a shot at redemption after getting roughed-up by the Cardinals last Wednesday. He gave up three earned runs on seven hits in just five innings of work. He is 4-4 lifetime against St. Louis with a 4.97 ERA.
St. Louis will counter with Kyle Lohse for the first of this three-game set against its NL Central rivals. He is off to a strong start with two wins and an ERA of 1.35 in his first two games. Last week, he held the Reds to one run on four hits in six innings of work. Lohse is now 3-3 against Cincinnati with a 3.83 ERA.
Somewhere along the line this season the Cardinals will begin to miss Albert Pujols, but right now they are cruising along with an average of 5.7 runs per game. Combined with Lohse’s current form, take St. Louis for the back-end of the parlay as it continues to add to the Reds early woes with its third win in four head-to-head matchups.
