Ness’s Notes (August 11)
The Mets continue to advance as the best team in the National League with a 69-44 record. Their 7-3 win over the Padres on Thursday gives them a season-high 14-game lead in the NL East and a record 8 1/2 games better than the St. Louis Cardinals. who with a record of 62-52, own the second division of the National League. best mark.
My free play for Friday is the NY Yankees over the LA Angels at 7:05 ET. Coming off last night’s 2-0 sweep of my NFLX Doubleheader, I’ll be throwing my only Week One 20* in tonight’s game. In MLB, it’s another one of my exclusive Las Vegas Insiders (2-0 since Saturday) plus an MLB Triple 15 Report*, featuring my National League pitch mismatch of the month.
New York will enter this weekend’s game with the longest active winning streak in MLB (five in a row) and the second-best road record in MLB (34-22), as only the Tigers (39-19) They have been better this year away from home. The Red Sox and Pirates enter the weekend tied for the longest active losing streak in MLB, as both teams have lost five in a row!
That’s expected of Pittsburgh, which, at 42-73, owns a record that’s just a half-game better than the KC Royals (41-73). The Pirates own the worst road record in MLB at 14-45 and have surpassed the Cleveland Indians for the last spot in MLB’s top “money line” rankings. Pittsburgh’s current slump has them at minus-$2,324 on the year at $100/game.
However, what about the Red Sox? The team’s five-game losing streak has brought them to 65-48, three games behind the Yankees in the AL East, as well as two games behind the White Sox in the wild-card hunt (even the Twins are within reach). 1 1/2 games ahead of Boston). Of more concern should be that the team’s downfall came against the Devil Rays (first two losses) and Royals (last three losses), the two worst teams in the American League!
In last night’s loss to the Royals, Curt Schilling allowed 10 extra-base hits to the Royals, the most against any major league pitcher in a game in 37 years, since Cleveland’s Luis Tiant gave up 10 (five homers and five doubles) to the Royals. Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 18, 1969. Schilling is the first American League pitcher to allow nine or more doubles in a game since July 10, 1935, when Washington’s Earl Whitehill allowed 10 two-base hits to the Tigers.
Before moving on to Friday’s 15-game schedule, I mentioned two pitchers in yesterday’s notes, San Diego’s Chris Young and Cincy’s Bronson Arroyo. Young didn’t take the loss against the Mets yesterday and is now 8-0 with 12 no-decisions in his last 20 road starts (3-0 in his last nine road starts with Texas last season and 5-0 in 11 road starts for San Diego this season). It’s only the 10th time in MLB history that a pitcher has gone undefeated in 20 consecutive road starts.
Arroyo missed his 10th consecutive start Thursday to earn his 10th win of the year. He becomes the first major league pitcher since 1900 to win at least nine of his first 15 starts of a season and then win none of his next 10 starts. Arroyo started this year 9-3 but hasn’t recorded a win in his 10 starts since. wow!
The biggest series this weekend will be between the Tigers and the White Sox in Chicago. Game 1 is tonight at 8:35 ET and features Detroit rookie Justin Verlander (14-4, 2.79) against Jose Contreras (10-4, 3.75). The White Sox are coming off a three-game home series with the Yankees in which they won two of three, with each game decided by one run. The Tigers beat the Twins on Monday 99-3, but then lost the last two games of the series by scores of 4-2 and 4-3.
Detroit (76-38) enters this game with the best record in the majors and an eight 1/2 game lead over the White Sox (67-46) in the AL Central. Although the Tigers have held sole possession of the division lead since May 21, they have lost six of nine this season to the White Sox.
Justin Verlander hasn’t pitched since August. 1, but he looks to become the majors’ first 15-game winner and win his eighth straight decision when he takes the mound for Detroit in the series opener. Leyland decided to skip the 23-year-old rookie right-hander’s final scheduled starts to rest his weary arm. Verlander will look for better results against the White Sox this time. He is 0-2 with an 11.42 ERA in two starts against Chicago, allowing 11 runs on 14 hits (four home runs) in just 8.2 innings.
Jose Contreras takes the mound for Chicago and will try to avoid his fifth loss in six starts since the All-Star break after opening the season 9-0. Contreras tied a season high by allowing six runs in 6 2-3 innings of Sunday’s 7-3 loss at Toronto. He’s already faced the Tigers three times this season, going 2-1 with a 2.05 ERA in those outings, including a June 7 win over Verlander. He is 7-3 with a 3.30 ERA in 14 career starts against Detroit.
I have two closing notes from MLB. First, regarding Pittsburgh’s Zach Duke. Last year, the young lefty put the world of baseball on his ear. After going 12-3 with Triple-A Indianapolis, he was recalled in July and went 8-2 with a 1.81 ERA in 14 starts for a Pittsburgh club that finished the season 67-95.
However, not much has gone well for him this year. However, while he has pitched just as poorly at home (5.13 ERA) as he has on the road (5.54), the Pirates are 8-3 in his home starts and 1-12 in his 13 road starts. I guess the figures? The Pirates are 28-28 at home and a ML-worst 14-45 away from home.
The Royals, fresh off their three-game sweep of the Red Sox, open a three-game series tonight in Cleveland against the Indians (7:05 ET). While these two teams are having miserable seasons (Royals are ML worst 41-73 and Indians are 49-64), there is a HUGE discrepancy between the teams’ betting fortunes.
While the Indians own a record that’s 8 1/2 games better than the Royals in the standings, playing $100 a game on each team would lose you $2,308 in Cleveland, but just $104 less in Kansas City. That’s a difference worth noting!
NFL ratings
The Eagles opened up a 20-0 lead over the Browns last night and won 20-7. The loss on the Browns’ point spread ended a streak of seven consecutive preseason ‘covers’ by the team, a streak that was the longest active by any team. The longest active SU winning streak of any team in the preseason is owned by the Broncos (4-0 SU and 3-1 ATS last year) and they play tonight in Detroit against the Lions at 7:30 ET.
The Colts lost in St Louis to the Rams 19-17 in last night’s televised game. Twenty-two of the game’s 36 points came in the first quarter, as Scotsman Linehan of the Rams earned a win in his NFL coaching debut. While the Colts covered the five-point difference, it was the team’s seventh straight preseason loss (the Colts were 0-5 SU and ATS in 2005).
The Chiefs will go on a six-game losing streak in the preseason (as well as six straight ATS losses) when they visit Houston tomorrow at 8:00 ET to take on the Texans. Interestingly, the Texans own the worst preseason ATS record of any team in the past five seasons (2001-05). The Texans have actually only had four preseasons (they joined the NFL in 2002) but their 4-13 ATS is still their worst.
Following the Texans are the Dolphins (6-13-3), Raiders (7-14), Lions (7-13) and Redskins (8-14). The top five preseason ATS records in the past five years belong to the Cardinals (14-6), Titans (13-6-1), Cowboys and Jets (both 14-7) plus Browns (13-7). .
Of course, the Raiders have opened 1-0 ATS this year (they won and pinned Philly last Sunday) and the Browns lost last night, so maybe these five-year records don’t mean much. Then again, maybe they do? Along with the Broncos/Lions, there are four other games on tonight’s NFL preseason schedule, including the Patriots in Atlanta to take on the Falcons at 8:00 ET on CBS.
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