Last Night’s American League Highlights
Alex Bregman had a massive night clubbing two home runs and two doubles for a career-high 6 RBI on the night. Houston won the game in embarrassing fashion 21-5 over the White Sox collecting 25 hits in total. It was the second most runs in Astros team history, but still runs 7 short of the 28 runs Toronto put up on Boston earlier this summer.
Speaking of the Blue Jays, they also had a big night picking up a game on the Yankees with a 9-2 victory in New York. George Springer led the way for the Blue Jays in that game with a 5 for 5 night including a double. The Yankees’ lead in the American League East is now down to a non-insurmountable 9 games over Toronto and Tampa Bay.
Tonight’s American League Featured Game
Guardians (63-55) McKenzie Vs White Sox (61-58) Lynn, 7:10 EST
This is a key three-game series in the American League Central division. Cleveland currently holds a slim one game lead in their division over Minnesota, but the third-place White Sox are just 2.5 games behind. If Chicago were to sweep this series, they could find themselves vaulting into first place by the weekend’s end.
This is a battle between veteran starter Lance Lynn against promising young talent, Tristan McKenzie. The two pitchers contrast each other as Lynn appears to be fading into the twilight of his career while McKenzie is approaching his prime.
Andres Gimenez leads the Guardians with a .310 BA. Meanwhile, Jose Ramirez continues his dominance of the American League with his .534 SLG and 22 HRs.
The mounting injuries for the White Sox are becoming a concern. Tim Anderson joined the list this week and is expected to undergo minor surgery on a finger injury that was not getting better and was causing his performance to suffer.
Key Injuries:
White Sox – Tim Anderson, Leury Garcia, Luis Robert, Aaron Bummer, Jon Stiever
Guardians – none
American League Best Bets
I picked up another split in my picks yesterday. The Yankees could not capitalize on the momentum from the night before and were uninspiring again losing badly to Toronto. But Houston did not disappoint pounding out 21 runs for me.
AL: Guardians (McKenzie) [-125] Vs White Sox (Lynn) $$
I love this pitching matchup today for the Guardians. I have been backing Triston McKenzie much of the season because he is having a tremendous season and seems to be only getting better. While Lance Lynn may be the most overrated pitcher in the American League right now.
The White Sox attempt to recover from the debacle of the night before that included 2B Josh Harrison pitching the 9th inning and allowing 4 runs. I am not sold on the White Sox this season and I expect them to fall short of their playoff push.
AL: Astros (McCullers) [+110] Vs Braves (Wright) $
I am going to keep riding the Astros as I am convinced they are the best team in baseball. Lance McCullers makes his second start of the season for Houston after a dominant performance last week against Oakland. He faces a much tougher task today in Atlanta, but he should be up for the challenge.
I mentioned previously that there really should be very few times this season where the Astros should be considered underdogs, and I am not sure this should even be one of them. The Brave’s offence does look impressive and Kyle Wright sports a very good 14-5 record. But Lance McCullers is a stud and he has a team that just pounded out 21 runs the previous night. Now I am looking a positive money line and I just cannot pass that up.
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