(Starting Pitchers: H. Kuroda vs J. Hammel)
Hikori Kuroda is pitching for the Yankees today and he is coming from a great performance against Toronto, where he shutdown the Blue Jays in eight innings. He has allowed just four runs on his last four starts and he has been dominating the Orioles with a 2-1 record and an 1.85 ERA against them. However, I actually believe Kuroda will have some troubles tonight. He has been posting excellent numbers, but his numbers are a bit worse against LH batters: .235 BA, 3.56 FIP and 4.74 xFIP! His best pitch is the slider and Baltimore is #1 in the league in hitting against those this season! The Orioles are also a great hitting team against RH pitchers, as they are #4 in the league with a .778 OPS! Kuroda had four starts against Baltimore previously on his career, but all of them were at NY! This will be his first outing at Baltimore, so I believe the Orioles will indeed put him in some trouble tonight.
On the other hand, Jason Hammel is pitching for the Orioles and he is 1-1 on his last three outings, even though he has allowed 17 runs in 14.2 innings! He was unable to reach the fifth inning on his last two starts and he is coming from getting crushed with 7 runs and 10 hits on 4.2 innings against Tampa Bay last Friday. Prior to that game, he had allowed six runs to Minnesota. Besides a couple of nice starts at Oakland and Seattle, where he was pitching on pitcher-friendly parks, the truth is that Hammel has been pounded time and time again. He faced the Yankees earlier on this season at NY and he played well by allowing just two runs, but those were solo homeruns and that was already at April 13th! He is currently one of the worst SP's in the league and so, I expect the Yankees to pound him today.
So, I believe this will be a high scoring contest and therefore, I'll be taking the Over in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 969/970 Over 9 (w/ H. Kuroda & J. Hammel) @ +100 / 2.00 on Bookmaker
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