Big Al
Big Al
At 8:05pm our selection is on the Philadelphia Phillies over the Texas Rangers. There is a renewed sense of optimism in the heart of the Lone Star State as the Rangers have cracked the .500 mark with the close-fought win over the Phillies on Friday and this team is hoping to ride the success of one of the most surprising starters in the league to make it two in a row over one of the NL's best squads. But tonight's assignment will be considerably more difficult as instead of facing the very inconsistent Brett Myers, tonight the Rangers will have to face one of the best lefty starters in baseball in Cole Hamels. After back-to-back poor outings on May 25th and 31st, Hamels has now thrown four quality starts in a row and although the Rangers' righthander Vicente Padilla is 3-0 in his last three starts, those efforts came against the Nationals, Royals, and Braves, and that's hardly the cream of the Major League crop. As a team, Texas is batting 36 points lower against southpaws than it is against righthanders (.252 vs. .288). The Rangers' closer, CJ Wilson, has been very shaky lately as despite getting his 17th save on Friday, he gave up another earned run in the process bringing his ERA on the season close to five runs (4.86). Take the Phils. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.