A win over the weekend gets us off to a good start in September and pushes the winning run to 11 out of our last 12 dating back to the end of July. I can’t figure out what’s possessing me to make Tuesday’s play, but when games are going down the way they’ve been going down for the last five weeks you don’t think too hard about what the gut has to say about things.
Free Pick
The Tigers have been playing great baseball for the last few weeks and we’ve been all over them as successful backers, even fading them for a win on Saturday. We left Matt Boyd alone in his last start (a 4-3 win over the White Sox) after getting behind him for wins in the two prior against Boston and then Minnesota. The rook has pitched his team to a win in his last four outings, though he himself earned the win in only two of those games. He hasn’t overwhelmed in either of those last two, however, serving up 12 hits and five earned runs in 10 innings combined. Boyd’s ERA now sits at an even 4.00 as he creeps closer to that 100 innings pitched mark. His WHIP still looks nice, despite climbing a tick to 1.26. Now, he faces the same team in back-to-back starts for the first time in his career.
Miguel Gonzalez didn’t pitch when the Tigers swept the White Sox in three games at home last week, as he was making final recoveries from a groin injury that shelved him for nearly a month. It was a shame Gonzo went down when he did because he was riding one his his real nice runs of consistencies with seven straight starts of at least six innings pitched. He’s got his work cut out for him going up against a Tiger lineup that’s completely healthy with Justin Upton hitting balls very hard. The man they gave $130 million in the offseason has hit late go-ahead homers in each of the last two games, including a three-run dinger in the 11th last night.
The White Sox are now seven games under .500 and safely in fourth place with the Twins approaching 100 losses below them. So why am I eager to get behind them with Detroit playing so well and some other good plays on the card today? It’s a bit of a mystery. But…
Gut Says: Sox -102 (half unit)
YTD: 30-22-1 +3.90
2015: 31-25-5 +1.09
2014: 45-28-3 +9.02