Giants/Marlins:
I think you may notice a theme with my tendency to incorporate low key matchups between non contenders into my card more often than not. Today will be par for the course, as the San Francisco Giants Make their way south to face the Miami Marlins in a series where there should be little to no motivation for either club.
The number one goal at this point for both teams is to play spoiler against contenders. Miami was successful in the task last series, as they swept the Colorado Rockies, disallowing them to gain any ground on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Wild Card race. Tonight though, there is no spoiler opportunity..therefore, the motivation should be low for both clubs.
Two people who may not be taking this game lightly however, are the two starting pitchers tonight. Ty Blach and Adam Conley are far from established pitchers so far in their careers, and will like to work on further progress to become respectable names in the majors.
Let's start with Ty Blach, who will be starting for the Giants tonight and is coming off three straight quality starts in which he went seven innings or deeper in each. Blach is not a pitcher who has much stuff, as he averaging just over 4 Ks per 9 innings, and has a fastball no higher than the very low 90s. Instead he relies on desired contact, and his main weapon is his change up. He will have an advantage tonight, as the Marlins have never seen him, and will likely be fooled first time around.
Adam Conley may not be making a case for a solid career so far, and is also coming off two mediocre performances in Atlanta and Washington. However, he does have a couple advantages in his favor today. First off, the Giants are coming off 21 innings of baseball yesterday, and are not really playing for anything. I understand that not all Giants players played 21 innings of baseball or even close to it, but the mentality of having to endure more than two full games that were more or less meaningless will probably lead to an even further decrease in focus and motivation tonight . Second, the Giants are the second worst slugging team against left handers this season. Though I do not like to put too much emphasis on splits at this point of the season (it's more of a midseason capping technique for me), a .376 SLG under natural circumstances for most of the season is just too low to ignore.
Both teams saw a significant amount of bullpen activity in the past couple days, so expect that both starting pitchers will try to make quality pitches today to make it easier on the relief staff. All hell may break loose once the starters are pulled, but I expect that to be after the fifth inning.
FIRST FIVE UNDER 5 -110 3*