Cappers Sports Picks

Rating: 2 Units

The San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues are comfortable with their Western Conference final shifting back to SAP Center, as the former is 7-3 in front of their own fans while the latter has made itself at home on the road with a 6-2 mark. The Sharks bid to win Game 5 of their third straight series on Sunday against the Blues, who split the first two games in San Jose. The clinchers:  St. Louis is 7-16 in their last 23 playoff games as an underdog of +110 to +150 while San Jose is 19-8 in their last 27 after allowing 2 goals or less in their previous game.

Rating: 2 Units

Milwaukee will be comfortable in Canada. They beat the Raptors in their own arena in December when Giannis had an ordinary 19-point game. They also beat them on the last day in January when they held Lowry and Leonard to a combined 11 for 31 from the floor. The only time they lost to Toronto this season came when they were playing the second of a back-to-back game and Ersan Ilyasova only had 3 points in that game. Ersan had 17 on Friday. The Bucks bench outscored the Raptors reserves Friday 54 to 39.

Rating: 2 Units

Reports of Sale's demise were greatly exaggerated. Last time out, he recorded 17 K's. That give him 31 K's with ZERO walks his last two starts, 41 K's his last three. Over that 3-game span, he's got a dominant 1.29 ERA and 0.476 WHIP. He's also 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA in seven reg. season starts vs. Houston. Miley has a 2.31 ERA at home but a 4.50 mark on the road. Opposing batters hit just .181 against him at home but .274 against him on the road. The last time that Miley faced Boston was when he was with Baltimore in Sept. 2017. Coincidentally, that matchup also came against Sale. Sale and the Bosox won 9-0. Sale gave up four hits while striking out 13 in eight innings. Miley got rocked. The Sox should roll again this afternoon.

Rating: 2 Units

It is hard to pitch much better than Hendricks is doing right now. In his last three starts, he’s allowed a single earned runs across 25 innings with a 17-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and only 12 hits allowed. You don’t see many pitchers go that deep into games any more, but when you are as efficient and effective as Hendricks has been, you can get it done. Can’t say the same for Jeremy Hellickson. The Nats’ righty has not completed six innings since his first start of the season and has only gotten past the fifth inning three times. He has allowed five or more total runs in four of his last five starts. Chicago’s offense takes it up a notch on the road where they average 6.6 runs per game with an .849 team OPS. They also feature a very nice 21-12 record against righties. Look for them to come away with this one.

Rating: 2 Units

Left-hander Tyler Skaggs (4-3, 5.05 ERA) is 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA in two home starts on the season and he is 2-1 with a dominant 0.35 ERA in four career starts against KC. That includes five scoreless innings of three-hit ball in a 5-1 win at the K back in April. The Royals counter with left-hander Danny Duffy (2-1, 3.97 ERA) who is is 2-2 with a 4.25 ERA in seven games (six starts) against the Halos. Mike Trout hit his 250th career homer last night and is 7-for-18 with a home run and double off Duffy.  Royals are 5-23 in their last 28 Sunday games and 9-25 in their last 34 games vs. a left-handed starter. They've lost 10 of the last 12 meetings with the Angels.