New York Yankees vs. Texas Rangers July 30 Free Pick

By MLB

Colby Lewis makes his second straight start against the New York Yankees and second start since his infamous complaint about Colby Rasmus of the Blue Jays laying down a bunt at a completely appropriate time to do so. The big Texan who spent some time in Nippon Professional Baseball will be matched up with the long-time Japanese great Hiroki Kuroda on Wednesday. Even with just seven wins on the season, Kuroda is slated as a pretty large favorite to win on the road against the struggling Texas Rangers.

Free Pick

Colby Lewis‘ numbers might deceive some who let his season results tell the tale of his recent production. Lewis has a rather high 6.23 ERA and 1.79 WHIP, but both of those numbers were inflated after a terrible start and an outing at the beginning of this month when he allowed 13 hits and 11 earned runs to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in less than three innings of work. Lewis has put together two pretty good starts in his last two outings. Not great, but serviceable. Lewis has combined to allow five earned runs in just over 11 innings pitched, split pretty evenly between both starts. Those outings came against the Yankees and the Blue Jays – both on the road. Now, Lewis comes home to face the Yankees again who have been on a recent slide. kuroda

You might remember Kuroda’s terrible end to 2013 when he got shelled in just about every one of his last five to six starts. We’re still a little far away from that time of the season, so I think there’s still a favorable window to potentially back Kuroda before he may hit that same wall again. With all the Yankees’ pitching injuries, Kuroda has been the one rock like he usually is. And he’s put together another real good season with a sub-4 ERA and a WHIP of just 1.20. The Rangers’ injury problems have been well documented this season and the fact of the matter is that this team just doesn’t have the same offensive explosiveness it was thought to have coming into the season.

Neither of these starters will blow you away, but with two offenses that don’t amount to what people that they would and two pitchers throwing pretty well of late, I like the under with a pretty high listed total. Nine is a nice number that gives solid value with a nice opportunity to push, too.

Free Pick: Under 9 (-105)

YTD: 25-20-2 +1.88

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