Baseball Betting Picks: San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
Added on Jul 21, 2012 by Jack Thurman in
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The San Francisco Giants have been playing solid baseball and have taken over first place in the NL West with a 2.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers and they’ll try to pad that lead as they take on the struggling Philadelphia Phillies. Philadelphia’s nightmare season continues with no sign of relief in sight–they’re 5-10 in the month of July and have struggled in every phase of the game. They’ll try to avoid the sweep as the series concludes on Sunday.
San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies
July 21, 2012 10:35 PM Pacific
The betting marketplace continues to be in a serious case of denial about the Philadelphia Phillies. Despite losing more money than any team in baseball this year and despite brutal situational losses at home (-23.7 units) they’ve been favored in all three games against a San Francisco Giants team that may be playing their best baseball of the year. No matter how you slice it the Phillies have been awful–they’re 19-33 -21.8 unit record against opponents with winning records is symptomatic not only of how miserable this team has played but how overrated they are relative to marketplace perception.
Joe Blanton will get the start for Philadelphia today and he’s been moderately effective despite a 4.74 ERA overall. The Phillies have won 10 of his 18 starts (5 of 9 home starts) but that’s hardly enough reason to install them as a favorite here. The Giants will counter with veteran southpaw Barry Zito who is coming off a very impressive performance in his last assignment, a 9-0 whitewash of Atlanta where he went 7 innings allowing only 3 hits. He could be poised for another big effort here since the Phillies have been awful against left handed pitching this year. Philadelphia is a woeful 10-20 -14.6 units against left handers and they’re facing a solid one here.
The Giants are back over the ‘Mendoza line’ on the road and have been a profitable team overall (+11.2 units). They’ve won 8 of their last 10 and with the Los Angeles Dodgers showing some signs of life they can’t afford to lose their winning form. The bottom line for this game is that the Phillies are just a go-against at this point and in this matchup we’ve got a very effective opponent to use against them.
Bet San Francisco Giants (Zito) +135 over Philadelphia Phillies (Blanton)
