Baseball betting free picks every day at Oddsbay.com!  1-1 on Sunday, winning with Florida and losing the play on the Houston/Pittsburgh UNDER due to the generally inept play of the Astros combined with a solid pitching performance from the Pirates’ Paul Maholm and a 19 hit onslaught from the offense.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (BUMGARNER) AT LOS ANGELES DODGERS (MCDONALD) 7:10 PM PACIFIC

The Dodgers have taken 5 of 6 from the Giants this season, but we look for that form to reverse in this series in general and this game in particular.  San Francisco is one of the hottest teams in baseball at the moment, winning 8 of their last 10 games to pull ½ game behind second place Colorado and 4.5 games behind first place San Diego in the NL West.  Dodgers enter this game on a 4 game losing streak, and have been something of an inconsistent team all season.  We’re aware that the Dodgers have dominated their division rivals in head to head play this year (23-6 +17.6 units) while the Giants have struggled (9-20 -14 units) but we don’t see either trend sustaining itself throughout the rest of the season.  With the exception of cellar dwelling Arizona, there’s a lot of parity in the NL West and the good teams—particularly the Giants and Padres—look to be in it for the long haul.

The Giants’ pitching has been exceptional since the All Star break.  While everyone knows about Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito, today’s starter has also been in good form—rookie lefthander Madison Bumgarner has won 3 straight starts and checks in with a 2.57 ERA on the year (2.14 on the road).  The Dodgers counter with Jim McDonald, making his first start of the year after being recalled from Triple A Albuquerque.  He’ll face a tough challenge trying to slow down a Giants’ offense that has scored more runs (87) in July than any team in the majors.  With an underrated pitcher on the mound and an improving offense against a pitcher making his first start of the year we’ll take the Giants as small dogs.

PLAY SAN FRANCISCO (BUMGARNER) +110 OVER LA DODGERS (MCDONALD)

TEXAS RANGERS (FELDMAN) AT DETROIT TIGERS (BONDERMAN) 4:05 PM PACIFIC

Rangers have been somewhat erratic during the month of July (6-9 -12.2 units) and they head to Detroit to face a Tigers team that has pulled into contention and are now just 1.5 games behind AL Central leading Chicago.  Tigers have struggled on the road (16-29) but are dominant at home where they’ve got one of the best records in baseball (32-13 +16.8 units).  Rangers aren’t a bad road team (22-20) but are much stronger at home.  That’s particularly true at the plate, where Texas boasts a team batting average 20 points higher and scores nearly a full run a game more at home than on the road.

Tigers’ Jeremy Bonderman is also a much better pitcher at home—he’s got a 4.84 ERA overall but he’s 3.71 at home where Detroit has won 5 of his 8 starts.  They’ve also won 5 of his 7 career starts against Texas, while the Rangers’ Scott Feldman has struggled bigtime against the Tigers.  Texas is 0-3 in Feldman’s three career outings against the Rangers, and he’s been hit hard to the tune of a 9.75 ERA.  This is the first matchup of the year between the two teams on the Tigers’ home field, but they’ve dominated head to head play at this site winning 9 straight games for +9.1 units of profit.  With their strong home field performance this year and track record in the series here we’ll back Detroit as a short favorite.

PLAY DETROIT (BONDERMAN) -115 OVER TEXAS (FELDMAN)

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