White Sox (34-48) vs Rays (47-40)
The struggling Chicago White Sox dropped the opener of their series against Tampa on Friday night. It was the same old story of not getting much from their starting pitching as Dylan Axelrod couldn’t even get through 2 innings.
Saturday July 6
Tropicana Field – Tampa, FL
7:15PM
Probable Starters:
CHW: Chris Sale (L)
TB: Matt Moore (L)
Moneyline: Tampa -140, Chicago +130
O/U: 7
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Chicago
With Jake Peavy and Gavin Floyd on the disabled list the Sox are grasping for arms and what was supposed to be a fearsome lineup hasn’t turned out to be so even though Adan Dunn is doing his best with a team leading 23 homers.
Earlier this week veteran 1B Paul Konerko was also put on the shelf but he wasn’t providing much anyway. This team is already in last but might be getting worse too.
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Don’t let the losing record fool you Chris Sale is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Last year he won 17 games in his first full season in the Majors but this year with the White Sox fallin on harder times the wins have been harder to come by. If you ignore the won-loss record you will see a pitcher that is in the top 6 in ERA, WHIP, BAA and Ks.
He has struck out 10 or more batters in 3 of his last 4 starts but has not a single win to show for it. The White Sox has won only one of his last 6 starts. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
He just doesn’t get much support receiving more than 4 runs just once in that span.
Tampa
The Rays took the series opener and are looking better and better lately. David Price came off the DL and looked great and last night starter, the lightning rod that is Jeremy Hellickson, continued to pitch well – he won his 4th game in a row and the Rays have won 7 of his last 8 starts. When you look at Tampa’s lineup you still wonder if this team will have enough offense after 3B Evan Longoria.
For now retread 1B James Loney is hitting well but after him and Longoria no regular is hitting above .270. They really need OF Will Myers to be the real deal.
This is a great battle of young lefties with Matt Moore taking the hill for Tampa. Moore is maybe not as refined as Sale as he walks way more batters but when it comes to pure stuff he is definitely on par, just a bit behind in terms of development as a pro pitcher.
The big problem about the walks is it makes it hard for Moore to work deep into games. Last time out he got into the seventh with brilliant stuff – giving up just a couple of hits – – but that was against Houston so you have to take it with a grain of salt.
Moore was very sharp in his lone start against Chicago this season: 6IP, 3H, 1ER, 9K. The lone blemish was a homer by Adam Dunn, who has hit a few of those in his career.
Fantastic pitching duel on paper that I think will come to fruition.
With Sale on the mound the White Sox have a great chance to top the Rays and there is some great value as most of the time Sale will the the favourite. I almost never go under but if I was going to this would be the time to do it as both pitchers can pitch themselves out of trouble.
Sale get the edge for being able to work more deeply into games at this stage.
O/U Pick: Under
Score Prediction: Chicago 3 – Tampa 2
