San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (-110, 7.5)
Tonight the Pittsburgh Pirates will send to the mound their highly touted rookie Gerrit Cole. Cole was the #1 pick in the 2011 draft and is one of the most highly anticipated prospects to come through Pittsburgh in quite some time. The stands will be rocking for this one. They've been waiting 2 years for a glimpse at this guy. In a year of Matt Harvey & Shelby Miller, Gerrit Cole will now have his chance at getting mentioned in the same breath as those guys. Given his opponent on Tuesday night's road struggles, I think Cole has an excellent chance.
The San Francisco Giants are currently sitting in 2nd place in the NL West only 2 games back of the D'Backs. However, their 12-18 record on the road ranks 10th in the National League. This is actually somewhat misleading. The Giants just won 2 games at Arizona over the weekend. That actually makes them 5-1 on the season at Arizona. If you take that away from the road record they are 7-17 which is even worse than their 12-18 record. Also, before this past weekend the Giants were 2-12 their last 14 road games. Not exactly anything to write home about (sorry that was horrible). The Giants will send Tim Lincecum to the mound. He is actually coming off of one of his better starts. However, he even admitted to not knowing what would come next. Given his 5.67 road ERA & opp. batting average of .299, I'm not sold on his improvement just yet.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh comes in with the 4th best record in the National League and the 3rd best home record at 21-11. They've been a strong home team all year and with all the excitement that will be in the park tonight, I fully expect an extremely motivated Pirates team to take the first game of a 3 game set. Look for a strong outing from the young flame thrower who has hit 100 on more than one occasion. The unfamiliarity and the consistent road struggles make the Giants a good team to fade here.
PIRATES -110
Tonight the Pittsburgh Pirates will send to the mound their highly touted rookie Gerrit Cole. Cole was the #1 pick in the 2011 draft and is one of the most highly anticipated prospects to come through Pittsburgh in quite some time. The stands will be rocking for this one. They've been waiting 2 years for a glimpse at this guy. In a year of Matt Harvey & Shelby Miller, Gerrit Cole will now have his chance at getting mentioned in the same breath as those guys. Given his opponent on Tuesday night's road struggles, I think Cole has an excellent chance.
The San Francisco Giants are currently sitting in 2nd place in the NL West only 2 games back of the D'Backs. However, their 12-18 record on the road ranks 10th in the National League. This is actually somewhat misleading. The Giants just won 2 games at Arizona over the weekend. That actually makes them 5-1 on the season at Arizona. If you take that away from the road record they are 7-17 which is even worse than their 12-18 record. Also, before this past weekend the Giants were 2-12 their last 14 road games. Not exactly anything to write home about (sorry that was horrible). The Giants will send Tim Lincecum to the mound. He is actually coming off of one of his better starts. However, he even admitted to not knowing what would come next. Given his 5.67 road ERA & opp. batting average of .299, I'm not sold on his improvement just yet.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh comes in with the 4th best record in the National League and the 3rd best home record at 21-11. They've been a strong home team all year and with all the excitement that will be in the park tonight, I fully expect an extremely motivated Pirates team to take the first game of a 3 game set. Look for a strong outing from the young flame thrower who has hit 100 on more than one occasion. The unfamiliarity and the consistent road struggles make the Giants a good team to fade here.
PIRATES -110
