Posted on
4/29/2008 1:51:36 PM
MLB Baseball Betting - Tampa Bay at Baltimore
By Charles Jay
BetUS MLB baseball betting odds: Tampa Bay -125, Baltimore +105, Total 9.5 (Over -115, Under -105)
Teams with identical records at the top of the American League East will come together on Tuesday night, as the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays (14-11) visit the Baltimore Orioles (14-11) in a game that will start at 7:05 PM ET on the natural grass of Orioles Park at Camden Yards.
Jason Hammel (2-1, 4.32 ERA), a right-hander, will be the starter for the Rays, while the Orioles will counter with southpaw Garrett Olson, who will make his season debut.
At BetUS Sportsbook, Tampa Bay is listed as a -125 favorite (Baltimore is +105), with a total of 9.5 runs (the Over is -115, while the Under is -105).
Here are some of the MLB betting trends as they relate to this matchup:
(NOTE: These trends may also revert back to the 2007 season)
* TB has won its last six games
* TB has played seven of its last eight games UNDER the total
* TB has lost three of its last four road games
* BALT has won three of its last five games
* BALT has won three of its last four home games
* BALT has played seven of its last nine games UNDER the total
In the HEAD-TO-HEAD baseball betting trends:
* TB has won eight of the last 11 meetings
* Nine of the last 13 meetings have gone OVER the total
* TB has won four of the last five meetings as the road team
* Six of the last eight meetings in Baltimore have gone OVER the total
Baltimore is coming from Chicago's Comiskey Park, where it played a 3-3 tie game with the White Sox that was suspended after 11 innings due to long rain delays. The game, from beginning to end, lasted over five and a half hours.
Meanwhile, it doesn't get much better than the Tampa Bay Rays received out of pitcher James Shields on Sunday. The youngster threw a two-hit complete game shutout in blanking the Red Sox, in the process tossing just 99 pitches and giving the Tampa Bay bullpen, which leads the league, a rest. The Rays, who are on a six-game winning streak (all of that at home, we should mention), are in a deadlock with the equally-surprising O's in the first-place spot in the AL East, having been doing all of this without southpaw ace Scott Kazmir, who led the league in strikeouts last year and is on the disabled list.
On Tuesday night it's Jason Hammel, who has given his team three straight quality starts, including an April 12 outing against Baltimore, which put only six men on base against him in seven innings, and only the lack of offense on the part of the Tampa Bay lineup prevented Hammel from winning (the game was a 3-2 Oriole win). Hammel has been perhaps an unexpected bright spot for manager Joe Maddon; in 25 innings as a starter, he's surrendered only 23 hits.
Garrett Olson makes his first start of the year for Baltimore. He is a mature 26 year-old who went 32 innings for last year's team. Olson was playing at Triple-A Norfolk when he was called up, and was rather stellar, compiling a 1.85 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 24-1/3 innings. But he's done that before int he minors; in his stint with the O's in '07, he had a 2.16 WHIP ratio to go with his 7.80 ERA, and 65% of the batted balls against him went in the air. So he's susceptible.
We'd like to see a successful run around the track for Olson before putting our backing behind him. For now we'll continue to move with Hammel and the Rays, the -125 favorite in the BetUS Major League Baseball betting odds.
JAY'S PLAY: TAMPA BAY (-125)
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(Charles Jay of http://www.eBookies.com touches all the bases as a regular contributor to the BetUS Locker Room)