Pittsburgh Pirates at Toronto Blue Jays (-170, 8)Heading into Tuesday night’s action, the Cleveland Indians still sat atop the league’s money standings, but not by much.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have earned their supporters 9.87 units so far, just behind the 10.14 units Cleveland has earned. The Pirates continue to surprise teams – especially on the road, scoring 9.70 of those units as visitors.
Wednesday could provide another payday for Bucs bettors with Paul Maholm on the hill. He’s allowed just five runs over the last four starts.
There has been a bit of trade speculation swirling around Maholm now that he’s really hitting his stride, but it doesn’t sound like he wants to go anywhere.
"Now that we've gone through the rough times and it's starting to get good, it'd be tough to not be here whenever it turns over," Malholm told reporters.
Pick: Pirates
Cincinnati Reds at Tampa Bay Rays (-165, 8)If you’re a fan of dominant pitching, you ought to try to knock off work early to get a look at James Shields as his Rays take on the Reds in a matinee affair.
Shields has fired three consecutive complete games, allowing just one earned run while striking out 24 batters during that stretch. That adds up to some quiet days for the Rays bullpen.
"The other day we tried to knock down some cups of water," reliever J.P. Howell told reporters about what the pen does when Shields is on the mound. "Do some abs maybe. There's nothing much for us to do. He kills our incentives, I'll tell you that. If you've got any [appearance] incentives [in your contract] he's taking them all from us. He's an incentives killer for the bullpen, but that's definitely a beautiful thing."
It certainly is – especially for under bettors. We’re banking on Edinson Volquez calming down and Shields continuing to roll.
Pick: Under