Daily Picks: Washington Domination

Sunday baseball always brings with it plenty of action and this week should be no different. A day full of intrigues finishes with the Yankees and Red Sox meeting in Fenway Park in a game that always has a little bit of spice, regardless of the standings.

Here are Today’s MLB Picks:

Washington Nationals @ Atlanta Braves

This has been a really intriguing series and the finale on Sunday looks likely to be no different. Max Scherzer and Mike Soroka both come into this game with an ERA below 3.00. However, the key to this matchup is the home form this season of Soroka. His ERA in SunTrust park this season is 4.02 with an opposing batting average up at .275 and a .394 slugging percentage. We know that in all likelihood Scherzer is going to be very good, so the question in this game is can Soroka raise his game and outperform that 4.02 home ERA? I am going to say that Scherzer comes out on top in this matchup, and even lay an extra run to improve the odds.

1u – Washington Nationals -1 @ +100

Seattle Mariners @ Houston Astros

Last night I backed Justin Verlander to keep the Mariners under three runs and he came through for me. Well, Gerrit Cole is nearly as good as Verlander, and I think it could be back-to-back nights of pain for the Mariners offense.

1u – Seattle Mariners Under 2.5 Total Runs @ -110

Colorado Rockies @ San Diego Padres

This is a matchup between two pitchers in horrible runs of form right now. Eric Lauer has a 5.72 ERA in the second half of the season and gave up four earned runs in his first start of September. Peter Lambert is just having a tough season in general. His ERA for the entire season is up over 6.00, and his second half ERA is as high as 7.52, including having gone for an ERA over 8.50 in August. Strangely for a Rockies pitcher his road ERA is actually worse at 7.47 than his 7.00 ERA at home. There is not too much to think about with this one, just take the over and hope neither pitcher decided to suddenly throw a gem of a game.

1u – Over 9.5 Total Runs @ +110

New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox

These two pitchers have been involved in some ugly games this season. There was the carnage in London, where they combined for just one innings. There have then been other games where nether of them have had much success. Those issues have meant that this line has been set at 11, which feels a little high to me. Masahiro Tanaka has ugly second half numbers, but they are mostly based on a rough July. Since the beginning of August his ERA is 3.26 and he comes into this game in reasonable form. Rick Porcello actually had a decent August, with an ERA of four and just 12 earned runs allowed. He did have a rough time of it last time out, but I’m backing him to not be a disaster. The key to this game is Tanaka. The weather is slightly in the favor of the pitchers and I think Tanaka takes advantage. If he pitches to form then his numbers should be enough to keep this total under 11 and to allow the Yankees to cover the spread.

1u – Under 11 Total Runs @ -105

1u – New York Yankees -1.5 @ +130