The Rangers have had the Mariners’ number as of late, as in Seattle’s last eight games they have faced the Rangers five times and have only won once. In those five games their pitching has been tagged up for 44 runs. That is not good for Miranda, who has not been sharp as a starter since coming over from Baltimore. Griffin has been pitching pretty well as of late and in his career facing the Mariners he is 3-2 with a 3.44 ERA in six career starts. He will get a lot of help tonight, as the Rangers will win behind another strong offensive performance.

The Royals are fighting to make the playoffs and the defending champions have to be happy to be facing the Twins, as they have won 12 of 14 contests facing them this season. Not only that, but they have won six in a row against Minnesota outscoring them 47-15. While the Twins have lost their last five games against the Royals with Santana getting the start the last time he faced them on August 21st he held them to one earned run in seven innings in a 2-1 Minnesota loss. The Twins offense has scored 27 runs in the last three games, but they lost two of them. Their lineup will score some runs tonight and Santana will have a decent outing, as the Twins will take this game and even the series.

The Tigers are 12-5 facing the White Sox this season, but only 3-4 facing them in Chicago. The Tigers swept the White Sox in a three game set last week, but that was in Detroit. Sale has only one win in eight starts since the All Star break, but he has only given up more than three runs in one of those starts with the Chicago offense not giving him much help. However, the White Sox have scored a total of 27 runs in their last three games. Look for Sale to have another solid outing today and while Verlander may have one as well the White Sox have won their last four home games against the Tigers with Sale on the hill and look for that trend to continue.

The Rays are in the basement of the AL East and 18 games under .500, but they are going for the sweep today and have won the season series facing the Blue Jays in eight of the last nine seasons. Tampa Bay only ranks 22nd in the Majors in runs scored, but they have totaled 39 runs in their last six games. Happ ranks 2nd in the AL in wins and 10th in ERA, but he has been struggling as of late. He had a great last outing facing the Rays, but will run into a Rays’ offense that has scored a total of 15 runs in this series. Archer is only 3-9 at home this season, but has a solid ERA of 2.61. He has not received much run support in his home starts this season, but that will change today. Take the Rays to win this game and complete the sweep.

Straily has been one of the few bright spots for the Reds this season even though he was less than stellar in his last outing. Still, that game was on the road and at home he is 5-1 with an ERA of 2.94 and Cincinnati has won his last five home starts. He may have to pitch well tonight, as the Reds have struggled to score runs as of late totaling only nine runs in their last five games. The Cardinals have also had their issues at the plate lately totaling five runs in their last three games. Cincinnati is 21 games under .500 on the season, but they are 33-33 at home and can even the season series with the Cardinals with a win today. That is exactly what will happen, as Straily will bounce back at home and Garcia will continue to struggle in a Reds win.

This AL West game pits an Astros pitching, which has been solid as of late, facing a Rangers offense that has averaged over seven runs per game in their five-game winning streak. The Rangers have had the Astros number this season winning 11 of 13 games against them. Fister has not been solid in three of his last four starts, but on the road this season he 9-3 with an ERA of 3.07. He did have a solid outing facing the Rangers in the beginning of August, but that game was at Houston. The Rangers have the best home record in the AL and while Griffin has not been lights out in the 2nd half he will not have to be great tonight with the Texas offense rolling. The Rangers will get to Fister in the first game of this series and they will win their 6th in a row.

Quintana has been one of the bright spots for the White Sox this season and since the All Star break he is 4-1 with a 1.81 ERA. He has a quality start in eight straight games. He may have to have another quality start tonight with the White Sox lineup not producing as of late. The Twins’ offense has not really been the main problem in their 13-game skid, but their pitching has. In the 13 games they have given up more than seven runs nine times. Santana was shelled in his last start and his last four starts have been on the road. The last time he pitched at home he got the win over the White Sox. Still, the White Sox will get the win behind Quintana tonight sending the Twins to their 14th straight loss.

The Marlins’ lineup has really been struggling as of late and they have only scored more than three runs in two of their last 10 games. On the other side of the coin the Mets have averaged six runs per game in winning eight of their last 10 games. They need their lineup to produce with a banged up starting rotation.

Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton, who leads the team in HR, and Justin Bour are out with groin injuries. The Mets’ lineup has been sparked by the return of Jose Reyes, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Yoenis Cespedes, who were all on the DL at the beginning of this month. With the struggling Miami lineup and with them only winning one of their last six games facing the Mets that equals a New York win tonight.

Tough call in this one, as Tanaka has been lights out in his last two starts, but in his only career start against the Royals, which was this season in May, he was tagged up for six earned runs in seven innings. Still, he has recorded a win in each of his last four starts and in that span he has only one walk and 30 strikeouts. The Royals have scored 18 runs in winning their last two games, but Tanaka will tame their bats tonight and the Yankees will get the win.

I would stay away from the Over in this one, as even though that has been the pick in the last five games between these teams both starters are coming off solid outings and runs may be sparse tonight.

The Blue Jays have the slight 7-6 edge in the season series against the Orioles this season and in their last series facing them they won the first two games totaling 15 runs while losing the last game only scoring two. Orioles’ starter Miley will face a Blue Jays’ lineup that totaled 32 runs in their last series, which was a three-game sweep of the Twins. He has not been pitching well since coming over from Seattle, but in his 2nd to last start with them before the trade he held the Blue Jays to two runs in six innings in a 2-0 Mariners loss.

Marco Estrada has not pitched well in his last two outings and he has an ERA of 6.00 in four August starts. He has faced the Orioles three times this season and after the Blue Jays dropped his first start facing them they have won their last two against them with him on the hill. In his last two starts Estrada has given up five HR and he faces a Baltimore lineup that has the most HR’s in the Majors. Tough call in this one, but going with the Orioles. They have won both series at home this season facing Toronto and they will win the first game of this series in what will not be a pitcher’s duel, which is why the OVER is also a good pick.

Neither starter in this game has good numbers against the opposition with the Reds’ current roster hitting a lifetime .370 against Zack Godley and the Diamondbacks hitting .375 against Anthony DeScalafini. The big difference here is DeSclafani’s consistency with a 62.4 quality start percentage on the road compared to Godley’s 25% at home. I’d take a shot on the total here, but we have and high percentage UNDER umpire behind home plate, so that’s out. Cincinnati has had no problem hitting Arizona’s pitchers in four games this season and I feel that they’ll do a much better job this tonight getting some of those base runners across the plate.

The Orioles have lost three straight games that Yovani Gallardo has started although has pitched well enough to have a better fate holding the opposition to three or fewer runs in each game. What he hasn’t done however is pitch well against the Yankees who have scored nine runs over 13 innings in his last two starts against them. Rookie Luis Cessa goes for New York and he’ll be making just his second career start. He looked great in his first one but his work in the bullpen was average and I can see a different outcome today. Both of these teams have been scoring well over the last handful or so of games and while the trend is to the under with five consecutive falling under the line, I believe that double digit runs are a strong possibility tonight. 

Rookie starter Ross Stripling faced the Giants in his career debut holding them hitless over 7 1/3 innings and I think he can repeat that performance tonight. San Francisco is ice cold having dropped four consecutive games and are on a 3-7 streak in their last ten as a dog. I’ll lay the small number and back the home side here.

It’s not like the Tigers are hot losers of five of their last ten games, but the five losses did come against arguably the two hottest teams in the AL. The Twins lost four straight to the sizzling before losing last night, so come into this game losers of five consecutive matches. They took the opener last night and look in line to take tonight’s game. They have a large edge in starting pitching with lefty Matt Boyd a superior option to Tyler Duffey. Boyd pitched six shutout innings against the Twins back in July and comes into this game allowing three or fewer runs in his last seven starts. Duffey pitched well in his start against the Tigers back in April, but he’s been very inconsistent this season and brings a 4-4 home record with a 6.67 ERA to the mound. The Twins have dropped five straight being outscored 33-9 and this game has number six written all over it.

KC starter Yordana Ventura has a poor 4.46 earned run average on the season, but he’s put together three consecutive quality starts (against quality hitting teams) and hasn’t tossed a bad game since early July in Philly. Miami starter Andrew Cashner was starting to pitch well before the trade and he did pitch well in his latest, but was dreadful in his two previous with his new team. The Royals’ roster has had limited exposure to Cashner’s stuff, but have hit .368 versus him in 19 at bats with six of the seven batters hitting over .300. The visitor is on a roll with eight straight wins and the pitching staff has been exceptional allowing a combined 13 runs over that span. 

The Astros bats are on fire having averaged 9.25 runs per game over their last four games and I expect them to have some success against rookie Jameson Taillon tonight. Tallion has been pitching well, but he hasn’t faced much in his last six with five of his six starts against some the National Leagues weakest offenses. Doug Fister takes the mound for Houston and while he hasn’t had his best stuff over the last two his historical stats against the Pirates current roster is solid holding them to a .241 on base percentage over 83 plate appearances. I’ll take a shot on the road team here at plus money.

The Astros’ offense has been on fire in the last two games of this series, and they have had success against the Orioles’ starter Yovani Gallardo with the current roster hitting a combined .312 against him. Houston starter Dallas Kuechel hasn’t been at his best in recent starts getting lit up in two of his last three and the Astros have lost his last three against the Birds, but his pitching performance wasn’t to blame. Baltimore’s stats against lefties are poor and with the way Houston is hitting the ball well lay the small number.

Both teams have been hot as of late, but I prefer the current form of the Rays’ Jake Odorizzi over A.J. Griffin. Odorizzi has been extremely sharp in recent games at home allowing two runs over 18 2/3 innings spanning three starts. Griffin has gone 11 starts without recording a quality start. Lay the small number. 

The Mariners are 12-3 in their last 15 games and send out arguably their go to guy this season. Hisashi Iwakumi doesn’t have the best road stats, but he does have a winning record and decent enough ERA of 4.17. He’s pitched well against the Angels in recent starts with the only sub-par outing coming in his last at home (6.1 innings pitched allowing four runs), but he stung together four quality starts before that including his last two in Angel Stadium. Matt Shoemaker gets the ball for the ball for Los Angeles and he has pitched well at home this season with a 70% QS rate, but hasn’t gotten the run support. The numbers look the same for his starts against Seattle recording a QS in three of his last four starts against them with the Angels dropping all four. With the scoring woes of LA and the probability of a quality start by Shoemaker the total seems like the safest bet but add in some action on the Mariners on this game as well. 

The Royals are the hot team here and from this side of the fence the better starter Yordana Ventura is the better starter in this match. Ventura has a nice 61.5% quality start rate on the road this season compared to Tigers’ starter Anibal Sanchez’ 30.8. The Royals starter has also had great success against the Tigers with four QS in his last five against them allowing a total of five runs over the five games. Sanchez has allowed 14 runs in his last three starts against Kansas City. He has been pitching better at home, but is coming off a beating in Texas, so his current form has to be questioned. I see the visitor here as the value play.