San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates June 21 Free Pick

By MLB

Roenis Elias and the defunct back end of the Red Sox starting rotation gets our rare over play to the window and we’re back at .500 this month with four plays and a little over a week left to go. I’m not real hot on the card today but there is one angle that we can chase with a little change. Wilfredo Boscan makes his first Major League start on Tuesday night.

Free Pick

He isn’t quite as highly touted as Jameson Taillon, but Boscan has had Pirates fans optimistic about the time when he joined Cole and the former in the same starting rotation. Today, that becomes reality for fans in Pittsburgh. Boscan has been up with the big club for the last month, long enough to make five appearances and accumulate some pretty decent numbers ahead of his first start. He’s got a sub-3.00 ERA and a WHIP just over 1.00 in 12 innings out of the ‘pen. His strikeout to walk rate isn’t good in his short stint thus far, but Boscan hasn’t allowed a home run either. And while I don’t love the matchup with San Francisco this evening, I believe the number may be a smidgen too high with Johnny Cueto on the other side.  sbl

Cueto has made 14 starts for his new team in 2016 and has allowed two runs or fewer in 11 of those 14. He’s also gone at least seven innings in 11 of the outings and at least six in all but one. PNC is the place of some nightmares for Cueto, who infamously dropped the ball and allowed a subsequent homer to Russell Martin in the 2013 Wild Card game as a member of the Cincinnati Reds. Pirates fans are pretty great, but nothing about tonight’s atmosphere will resemble that one of nearly three years ago. Why shouldn’t we expect Cueto to be great again tonight? Let’s play the under for some chiclets.

Free Pick: Under 8.0 -110 (0.25 units)

YTD: 14-11-1 +2.02

2015: 31-25-5 +1.09

2014: 45-28-3 +9.02


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