While the National League Central is the most competitive division in the Major Leagues the same can’t be said about the NL West. The NL West winner is pretty much a foregone conclusion at this point as the Los Angeles Dodgers hold a ridiculous 15.5 game lead over the second place Arizona Diamondbacks and a 16.5 game edge over the third place San Francisco Giants. To their credit, however, the Giants have been playing their best baseball of the season over the past couple of weeks having won 9 of their last 11 games and 14 of 17 in the month of July. It can’t be easy maintaining a sharp competitive edge knowing that they’ve got an almost insurmountable deficit to deal with so credit to the Giants for their professionalism here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Chicago Cubs are in first place and have been playing well but they’re in a markedly different situation than the high flying LA Dodgers. They’ve got to keep winning to maintain their tenuous hold on the top spot in their division. Chicago has a slim 2.5 game edge over the two teams tied for second place, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals. They can’t even write off the bottom feeders in the NL Central–the Pittsburgh Pirates are just 7 back and the Cincinnati Reds are 9 back. Neither the Bucs or Reds have been in good form of late but it would only take a decent run by either team to vault them into contention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago will start right hander Alec Mills–Mills pitched reasonably well in his first start of the year going 5 innings and allowing 3 ER on 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6. The 27 year old Mills is going to stay in the rotation for the time being–Cole Hamels is still sidelined and although the team considered going with a four man rotation the team likes what they see in Mills to keep him penciled in to the #5 spot for the time being. It helps that Mills has a fan in manager Joe Maddon who noted during Spring Training: “This guy is better than you think.” Mills has been in pro baseball since 2012 but has bounced back and forth between the minor leagues and the majors. The Clarksville, TN native is an easy guy to root for and it’s good to see him getting a second chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Francisco will counter with right hander Shaun Anderson about whom it must be said that the Giants have been winning recently despite him. Anderson has a 4.87 ERA on the season and a 4.05 ERA at home. He hasn’t figured into the decisions in his last three starts and has been in pretty marginal form with a 8.78 ERA and a 2.101 WHIP in 13 1\/3 innings of work where he’s allowed 13 ER on 22 hits and 2 home runs walking 6 and striking out 12. He’s been bailed out by the Giants all of a sudden red hot offense–San Francisco scored a total of 28 runs in Anderson’s last three starts which gives him a sizable margin for error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cubs have struggled on the road this season with a record of 18-27 -10.8 units. They’ve been particularly bad in night games away from Wrigley Field where they’re 12-20 -8.4 units. And like every Cubs team dating back to the days of Ernie Banks they’re overpriced relative to the baseball betting odds<\/a>–that’s why they’ve lost -2.6 units against opponents with losing records despite a 24-20 mark. Giants have been undervalued all season and that appears to be the case here. They’ve cleaned up against right handers this year with a record of 38-33 +13 units and have been money in the bank under the lights with a record of 32-28 +12.7 units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n