2006
Are you still on the outside looking in? America’s
greatest sports service the Dream Team
at Godspicks.com sweeps the board last night with San Fran-Arizona way over the
total and the underdog Mets coming in.
We have two NHL playoff winners plus five MLB.
Did you know there
is a team in which the underdog is an incredible 13-2 in their games this year?
That big underdog system that involves a team playing great defense applies
tonight. You win with it again.
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MLB
Braves-Nationals
Scorephone.com
Smoltz made five starts against
the Nationals last year, but only recorded one decision. That came in a 5-4
Braves win at RFK Stadium last June. For his career Smoltz owns an impressive 15-7 record with a 2.50 earned
run average in 56 appearances (29 starts) versus the Montreal/Washington
franchise. His counterpart, Nationals righthander
John Patterson, is also coming off his best outing of the young season.
Patterson dominated the Marlins through eight innings last Saturday, yielding
just one run and three hits while tying a career-high with 13 strikeouts to
notch a win. Patterson was outstanding in three starts against
in 2005, but failed to record a decision in any of them despite allowing just
three runs over 14 2/3 innings. He has never beaten the Braves in six lifetime
starts, going 0-2 with a 4.28 ERA. The Braves are 25-13 against
Washington/Montreal over the last two years, but went just 4-5 in RFK Stadium in 2005.
won 10 of the 19 matchups between the clubs a year
ago.
Marlins-Phillies
Courier Post
The Phillies will begin a three-game series with
tonight at
Scott Olsen (0-1, 1.69) against Jon Lieber (0-3,
9.18). Lieber’s struggles are well documented, but
the veteran says he feels strong, unlike during his midseason slump last year
when he said his stuff was admittedly flat. “No question, I want to pitch the
next day (after struggling),” said Lieber, who
sandwiched one good start against Los Angeles between a pair of bad efforts
against St. Louis on Opening Day and one in Colorado in his last start. Lieber remains this team’s de facto No. 1 until someone
steps up to claim it. So far, the rotation has had good starts, but those are
outnumbered by one with far too many multiple-run innings. The staff is one of
many reasons the Phillies find themselves below .500 and struggling at home.
Reds-Brewers
MLB.com
Entering Thursday night’s game, the Reds’ defense had the
Major League’s lowest fielding percentage (.969) as well as the highest number
of errors (18). One game after he started and made his 2006 debut, catcher
Jason LaRue was not in Thursday’s lineup. Instead,
Javier Valentin was starting behind the plate. Narron plans to ease the workload on LaRue,
who was activated from the disabled list this week after recovering from knee
surgery. But Thursday’s decision had more to do with Valentin
batting 5-for-9 (.556) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Tomo
Ohka. Narron would like LaRue
to catch at least two games in the series, but the manager hasn’t decided if he’ll
start LaRue on Friday with Bronson Arroyo on the
mound. David Ross, the team’s third catcher, has caught all three of Arroyo’s
starts this season and the battery has worked well together.
Pirates-Astros
Post Gazette
Astros: They are the only National League team hotter at
the plate than the Pirates. In their current 5-2 run, they have scored 50 runs,
an average of 7.1 per game. The Pirates were 4-2 at Minute Maid last season, a
dramatic improvement over 2-19 in their first 21 games there.
Cubs-Cardinals
Mercury News
Mark Mulder will get the start
tonight instead of Sidney Ponson, to keep Mulder on
his four day‘s rest following the off day Thursday. The Cardinals have won
three series since losing the trio of games to the Cubs_their
only series loss this year. The Redbirds swept three from
to start the year; after the Cubs, they won two of three against
The Cards (9-6) are 4-2 at home and 5-4 on the road.
(9-5) is 4-2 at home, 5-3 on the road.