MLB Picks: August 11th 2011
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Pick: Chicago Cubs -114
Washington is very good at home, but struggles badly on the road, which is nothing new as they were like this last season. Jordan Zimmermann goes for the Nats, 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in 11 career innings against Chicago. And the Cubs go with Ryan Dempster, who has dominated Washington in his career, with an 8-1 record and a 2.97 ERA against them. Dempster gave up two runs on four hits over six innings Friday against the Reds while picking up his ninth win of the season. And the Cubs are 12-4 in Dempster’s last 16 starts. Play the Cubs. -Jim Feist

Pick: Chicago White Sox -119
The White Sox get the call as our free play tonight as they stand a good chance of bouncing back from last night’s extra innings defeat. First off, the Orioles are a poor 5-16 in their last 21 games following a win. They are also 0-6 in their last 6 home games vs. a left-handed starter. That’s not good news with Buehrle stepping to the hill for Chicago. The White Sox are 13-3 in his last 16 starts, and he hasn’t allowed more than 3 earned runs in any of those starts. The White Sox are 7-1 in their last 8 road games, and I expect them to keep sizzlin’ away from home tonight. -Jimmy Boyd

Pick: Milwaukee Brewers +120
The Brewers dominance over the Cardinals continued on Wednesday, and I really like Milwaukee’s chances of completing the sweep tonight. Both teams will send out one of their top pitchers,as Yovani Gallardo takes on Chris Carpenter. Gallardo has clearly been the better start of late, posting a 1.23 ERA and 0.727 WHIP in his L3 starts, while Carpenter has a 3.86 ERA and 1.339 WHIP in his L3. The Brewers are also swinging the bats a lot better than the Cardinals right now. Milwaukee has scored 5 or more runs in each of their last 10 games, while the Cardinals are averaging just 3.4 over their last five games. Milwaukee is 21-6 in their last 27 vs. National League Central, 8-2 in Gallardo’s last 10 starts vs. a team with a winning record, and 4-0 in their last 4 during game 3 of a series. BET THE BREWERS! -Steve Janus (Handicapperspicks.com)

Our Tuesday night MLB predictions take us to Sun Life Stadium in beautiful Miami, Florida, where a pair of NL East dregs in the Washington Nationals and Florida Marlins partake in the second game of their current baseball betting series.
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The Nationals powered their way to the 9-3 victory in last night’s series opener launching a pair of long balls and 11 overall hits. Jason Marquis secured his first victory of the season after tossing 5.2 innings of three-run ball, and the Nats now have a nice little three-game winning streak in the works after swiping a pair from the Redbirds.

Since letting go of clubhouse sparkplug Cody Ross, the Marlins have dropped four of seven and enter tonight’s contest losers of three in a row. The pitching staff has surrendered a whopping 28 runs during that stretch. Now playing with a rag tag lineup with just a few notables, the Fish have seemingly given up on the season.

Washington Nationals (57-75, -$493) vs. Florida Marlins (65-65, $123)
Game Date/Time: Tuesday, August 31st, 7:10 ET
Game Location: Citi Field, Flushing, NY
TV/Radio Broadcast: FOX – Florida, SNY, XM

MLB Odds: Washington Nationals +160 (Jordan Zimmerman – R) vs. Florida Marlins -190 (Anibal Sanchez- R): Total 8.5 O -115 8.5 U -105

Jordan Zimmerman’s first start since returning from Tommy John surgery hardly went as planned. The righty surrendered seven hits (1 HR) and five ER’s while K’ing four and walking one through just four total innings of work. He said he felt strong throughout the outing, but just left a few pitches up that St. Louis batters teed off on.

There are simply no trends backing the youngster in this spot! The Nationals have lost each of his L/6 road starts, and each of his L/5 when installed a road underdog. He did however pick up a no decision against the Marlins in his lone career start against them tossing six innings of two-run ball with a 6/1 K/BB ratio last season.

Opposing the flamethrowing righty will be Anibal Sanchez who sports the second best starting ERA on the team at 3.29. Florida’s won three of his L/4 MLB predictions outings which includes a shellacking of the Mets his last time out after limiting NY to four runs through five innings of the Marlins 11-4 road victory.

He’s been at his best at home where he sports a 4-3 record with a 2.69 ERA & 1.26 WHIP through 73.2 innings of work; Florida’s just 6-6 in his 12 starts in front of the home crowd. He earned a no decision and a win in a pair of outings against the Nats this season, and in his career, he’s a perfect 4-0 with a 2.66 ERA in 11 starts vs. Washington.

MLB Insider Tip: This line is simply absurd for a pair of teams going nowhere this season. Yes, Sanchez is yet to suffer a defeat against the Marlins throughout his career, but Florida’s a .500 team with him leading its charge at home and the Nats have been playing some decent ball of late.

Washington’s gotten the better of each of the L/4 right-handers its opposed, and the Marlins are just 1-4 the L/5 times they were favored and 0-fer in Sanchez’ L/4 Game 2 starts.

Washington knows exactly what to expect with Sanchez as it’s opposed him numerous times. That’s simply not the case with Zimmerman, so both MLB bettors and the Marlins don’t fully know what to expect tonight. With that being the main reason for tonight’s MLB predictions against the heavily favored Marlins, take a stab with the Nats as they simply don’t deserve to be dogs of this magnitude to the Fish at this point in the season!

My MLB Prediction: Washington Nationals (Zimmerman)

Source: BetUS Locker Room Featured on: Handicapperspicks.com