If you’re a baseball fan, chances are you love the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, no matter what team you root for. In the past, those games were amazing, from Sheffield hitting moonshots off Wakefield over the monster, David Ortiz dismantling Mariano in the ’04 playoffs, or the Yankee faithful chanting “Who’s your Daddy?” to Pedro. Those games were special. Over the past couple of years the rivalry lost it’s luster. Both teams have dipped into their farm systems and brought up absolute studs and the rivalry is about to be back on. We get our first taste of it for our daily fantasy baseball purposes tonight as the two teams square off for the first time this season.
We have a full slate of games tonight, so let’s get to it.
Low-Scoring Plays
Chicago Cubs @ Pittsburgh Pirates – The Cubs are hot and beat the Pirates 14-3 last night. Rizzo, Shwarber and Byrant have been hitting the ball, scoring runs, just flat out producing for Chicago. Baseball is a game of streaks and the Cubs streak will end tonight. Gerrit Cole pitches for the Pirates and the Cubs are only hitting .256 as a ball club off him. Shwarber and Baez – who is struggling with his batting average – are the only players to hit home runs off of Cole. The combination of Cole and the hot streak ending at some point makes this game low-scoring.
Targets: Cole, McCutchen
Minnesota Twins @ Texas Rangers – Ervin Santana pitches for the Twins as he looks for his 4th win of the season. He has been spectacular so far with a 0.64 ERA. The Rangers are hitting .211 as a team, well below where they would like to be. The good news is they are third in the league in home runs which has kept them afloat so far. However, the bad news is Santana isn’t vulnerable to the long ball. In his 3 starts he has let up one home run. Napoli has had success against Santana in the past, however, he is struggling early this season and Santana should have his way.
Targets: Santana
High-Scoring Play
Tampa Bay Rays @ Baltimore Orioles – The O’s have been hot. They stuck it to Boston this weekend and beat the Rays’ top pitcher in Archer last night. I wrote above that baseball is a game of streaks, however, I don’t like the Orioles streak to end tonight. The superstars on the Orioles are all hitting below average however they still manage to win ball games. The Orioles are 7-2 at home, the Rays are 1-7 on the road, take the O’s big in this one.
Targets: Davis, Trumbo, Machado
Undervalued Play
Robert Gsellman – NYM – SP – Gsellman got shelled in his last outing against the Braves. Tonight, he plays the Braves again. Look for him to rebound. I don’t think he will dominate, but we can expect a score in the teens.
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