Record: 50-35
Rangers -1 1/2 -115
The Detroit Tigers have scored three runs or less in four of their last five games. It won't get any easier for them Wednesday, as Dane "Stunning" Dunning will be on the hill for the Texas Rangers. The crafty righty is one of the most interesting pitchers in baseball. He doesn't fan many batters, he doesn't issue many free passes, he doesn't give up too many hits and he doesn't get too much of the plate. This style of pitching has worked out incredibly well for him this season. If you look at his game logs, you'll see that he had a rough patch, but who wouldn't after going on maternity leave and then having your sleep schedule fouled up? He even mentioned this in an interview I watched. It's no coincidence that he's back on track after a bit of recovery time.
Detroit will start young left-hander Joey Wentz, one of the poorest performing starting pitchers in baseball this season. Went has struggled all season with a 6.45 ERA in April, lofty 8.03 in May and still bad 5.40 in June. The Tigers are just 1-7 in his last eight starts. Wentz looks the part of a stud pitcher, but just hasn't put it together yet. The Atlanta Braves drafted him and gave up on him, so there's something to be said for that, as they don't generally let good arms go. Wentz lacks command at times and in an effort to curtail his pitches, he ends up getting too much of the plate. He's allowed seven balls to leave the yard in only 27.2 road innings. In time, Wentz may end up having a decent career, but it's not likely to happen in 2023.
More stats to support the Rangers as a play tonight include: Detroit is hitting .215 as a team on road this season, resulting in a last place ranking in MLB for runs scored on the road. There's also been a power outage over the past week, as they've only hit four home runs over that span.
The Spencer Torkelson batting second experiment has failed miserably, yet they continue to keep batting him at the top of the order. This clearly indicates the team from the Motor City isn't trying to win games this season. So does having Miguel Cabrera in the lineup!
Lastly, the Rangers are second in Major League Baseball in home batting average at .285.
Based on Dunning's ability to keep runs to a minimum, Texas's high batting average at home, Detroit not smashing balls lately and the Tiger's lack of scoring runs on the road, I'm laying -1 1/2 runs and paying -115 odds instead of the huge moneyline juice (-225). I don't have a crystal ball and generally think that making final score predictions is cocky/asinine/dumb, but this looks like a game in which Detroit doesn't score more than 2 runs and Texas could easily score 7+.
Good Luck!
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