Thursday, July 06, 2017 Boston Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Rays (MLB) - 7:10 PM EDT Premium Pick Pick: Money Line: -163 Boston Red Sox Pick Title: MLB 9 Star Prime Motivator (Loss) The Boston Red Sox were embarrassed last time out in this series @ Fenway (May 14th) by an 11-2 count. Boston is also off an 8-2 loss @ Texas yesterday. The good news is their resiliency. The last 9 times coming off a loss has resulted in 8 wins. The surface also comes into play as the primed & motivated BoSox have thrived on the fake stuff this season winning in 5 of 6 tries. Over 95% of the time, your divisional champ shows a winning record on the road. I feel Boston's 24-22 road record is still in under-achieving mode. Let's enter Red Sox starter Chris Sale. More good news comes into the picture for the LHP Sale since Tampa Bay has won twice in 8 tries @ home versus southpaws. The Rays have a weak .232 batting average overall versus LHP this season which fails in contrast to the Red Sox .265 versus RHP. Chris Sale (11-3 on the season) is also in a groove winning 7 of his last 8 & has posted a 3-0 record his last 3 with a dominating 1.66 ERA. He's given 1 ER in his last 2 starts & is 5-0 his last 5 versus winning teams. Sale's won where it counts going 4-0 versus the AL East, 4-0 versus Tampa Bay as well as 4-1 his last 5 roadies. Look for Boston to start improving against their own division where they've under-achieved @ 16-15. My bottom line says Tampa bay's lone bright spot is their RHP Jacob Faria whose 3-0. I feel this will be a step-up in class for him since he's not faced this talented of a group thus far. The Red Sox 8-3 record their last 11 in this series clearly shows a talent gap. Let's go to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg to play the BOSTON RED SOX as my MLB 9 Star Primed Motivator! Monday, July 03, 2017 New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals (MLB) - 6:05 PM EDT Premium Pick Pick: Money Line: -170 Washington Nationals Pick Title: 9 Star Matzy Patsy Play (Win) Well, don't expect TOO many things from the mediocre Mets. Upon further dissection, these Metropolitans are an anemic 6-20 versus winning teams their last 26. Tighten this further & you'll find they've only won 3 of their last 17 when on the road versus winning teams. Measuring the sticks, it looks clear that the Nationals hit LHP with some authority @ .268 while New York has registered a very pedestrian .245 versus RHP. Steve Matz has faced Washington just 3 times overall (lost last 2) winning just once. My bottom line has to take Stephen Strasburg heavily into account. He's won 4 of his last 5 starts versus the Mets but has motivation since losing his last outing @ home against them. Digging deeper reveals Strasburg going 5-0 @ night this season. But what really sticks out here is his mastery of the patsies. Over the long haul, Strasburg has convincingly won 25 of his last 32 versus losing teams. With the Nats coming off losing their last series to St. Louis @ Busch Stadium, I'm expecting some run support for Strasburg tonight. This season, further motivation has to be Washington trying to record back-to-back 90-win campaigns. The last time they achieved this was back in the 1979-80 season (then called the Montreal Expos) when they had 3 HOF'ers padding the hitting stats with starters Andre Dawson, Gary Carter & Tony Perez. Let's go to Nationals Park to play the WASHINGTON NATIONALS as my 9 Star Matzy Patsy Play! 2017 MLB Overall Record: 30-10-----75%
 

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