With the Major League Baseball All Star Game in the books the season will really start to heat up in the second half. As teams get back into the rhythm of day to day action there’s a good deal of urgency throughout the American and National League. In five of the six divisions the current first place team is at risk of running away from the pack–if they have not done so already. Only one division has fewer than five games separating the first and second place teams–that’s the NL Central where the Chicago Cubs lead the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers by only three games. Top to bottom, this is the most competitive division in baseball–even the last place Cincinnati Reds are just 6.5 games out of first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest lead is in the NL West where the Los Angeles Dodgers have opened up a 14 game lead over the second place Arizona Diamondbacks. The Atlanta Braves lead the second place Washington Nationals by 7 in the NL East. In the American League West, the Houston Astros are 5.5 games up on the Oakland Athletics and in the AL East the NY Yankees have a six game advantage over the Tampa Bay Rays. In the AL Central the Minnesota Twins have a 5 game edge over the Cleveland Indians and have been ‘treading water’ going 5-5 in their last 10 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Twins desperately need to pick up the pace as the Cleveland Indians are quickly charging into sight in Minnesota’s ‘rear view mirror’. The Tribe have won 8 of their last 10 games and unless the Twins start to win some games the AL Central will soon become a two team race. This game is all of a sudden particularly important. It appeared that the Twins were catching a break from the schedule hosting the NY Mets in a pair of Interleague games. The Mets have been awful on the road this season and entered Tuesday’s game with a 19-32 record away from home which translates into a loss of -13.3 units on the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately for Minnesota, the Mets scrapped out a 3-2 win in Tuesday’s game. A loss in Wednesday’s matchup will mean the Twins have all of a sudden lost three straight with their next 7 games against the Oakland A’s and NY Yankees. The pitching matchup looks favorable for Minnesota–lefthander Martin Perez has a 3.44 ERA at home against a Mets team that has lost money against southpaws (10-12 -1.5 units). The Mets have been horrible in this price range (road underdog of +125 to +175) with a record of 3-15 -10.4 units this season. The baseball betting odds<\/a> for this game are kind of chalky but given the urgency for Minnesota we’ll take the bait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BET MINNESOTA TWINS (PEREZ) -165 OVER NEW YORK METS (VARGAS)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n