Detroit Tigers vs. Chicago Cubs
Free Pick: Detroit Tigers (110) – Thu June 25th 2009 1:05p
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The Tigers are red hot at home. They’ve won six straight in the friendly confines and look to make it seven in a row when they go for a three game sweep of the Cubs. A victory today would also give Detroit a perfect 6-0 homestand. However the Tigers will need a solid outing from Armando Gallaraga to have a shot at perfection

Gallaraga, who was nothing short of brilliant last season, has been nothing short of awful this season. He’s 3-7 with a 5.62 ERA and hasn’t won since April 26. Gallaraga is also 0-7 his last 10 starts.

Needless to say Chicago’s got a huge pitching advantage with Ted Lilly on the hill. The veteran lefty has made four starts this month and has been brilliant in each one of them posting a 1.98 ERA. On the season Lilly has made 11 quality starts, meaning he’s gone at least six innings in each of those outings. Over his last ten starts he’s 5-2 with a 2.78 ERA.

However there are some other numbers that favor a play on Detroit. Like the Cubs six-game losing streak to the Tigers daring back to 2001. Or how about the fact that the Cubs offense has gone south. Chicago has scored seven total runs while losing the first three of its 10-game stretch away from Wrigley Field. They’ve stranded 31 runners during its slide and if your not hitting with runners in scoring posistion, bad streaks tend to continue.

To loosely paraphrase Miss South Carolina, where as the Tigers can really hit the ball (8th in homeruns and 9th in scoring) the Cubs, you know, don’t whereas hit the ball very well. Chicago is 22nd in runs scored, 24th in OPS and 26th in batting average.

Is Ted Lilly the better pitcher today? Absolutely he’s head and shoulders above Gallaraga. However Lilly can’t do much about the Cubs anemic offense and that’s why I’m playing the Tigers in this one.

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