Minnesota Twins at San Francisco
Tuesday, June 21st, 10:15 PM
(matchup)
All of a sudden the Minnesota Twins have gotten really hot while the defending World Series Champion Giants are, well not. The two teams start up a three-game Interleague series Tuesday night in San Francisco with the home team available at -150 betting odds.
The Twins got the season off to an atrocious start, but have recently begun to turn things around. They have won seven straight games, including a three-game sweep of San Diego to kick off the latest round of Interleague Play. Minnesota had been swept by Arizona in its previous Interleague series last month.
The key reason for the resurgence has been the Twins pitching, which is holding opponents to an average of 1.7 runs per game and a .202 batting average over the last seven games. Overall, the club has won 14 of its last 16 games.
Carl Pavano will get the start for Minnesota. He has already thrown a pair of complete games in June and has posted a 1.44 ERA his last three outings. He needed only 96 pitches to beat the White Sox last time out in one of his two complete game wins.
San Francisco, meanwhile, is headed in the other direction. They have matched a season high with four consecutive losses and were swept in the Battle by the Bay by Oakland. The team has scored just seven runs total during the losing streak while batting .180, including 0 for 26 with runners in scoring position.
The Giants will give the baseball to Madison Bumgarner, who is a hard-luck 3-8 in 2011 despite a solid 3.21 ERA. He has yet to win at home this year in six starts, despite the fact that he’s allowed just one earned run in each of his two previous starts here.
San Francisco has plenty of
betting trends that would make them a good
MLB pick on the money line tonight. They are 21-4 at home when coming off four or more straight road games and are 39-19 off a loss by 2 runs or less. Bumgarner has a 9-1 team start record after walking one or less hitters in back to back outings.
These teams have not met in six seasons. They have near identical records in Interleague Play the last three seasons with the Giants one-half game better at 23-18 compared to 23-19 for the Twins.
