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UNDER 8.5 Washington Nationals/Pittsburgh Pirates:
Decent pitching matchup tonight at PNC Park between two teams playing for the future. Washington has been playing better lately, while Pittsburgh is busy dealing everyone from their opening day roster.

Lefty John Lannan (7-7, 3.25) has been the biggest bright spot all season for the Nats. He’s really becoming one of the better pitchers in the National League that no one knows about. Put him on a contender and he may be a Cy Young candidate. He’s that good. Lannan is 2-2 with a 2.70 ERA in his last 5 starts. Washington doesn’t score much for him, so he needs to be on top of his game every pitch of every inning.

Ross Ohlendorf (8-8, 4.51) has been decent for the Buccos this year, although they’ve obviously given up on this season. In the last 3 days they’ve moved Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez, John Grabow, and Tom Gorzelanny in attempts to get younger. Not much offensive support behind Ohlendorf tonight so he’ll have to continue his good run of late. He’s 2-2 with a 3.77 ERA in his last 5 starts.

Texas Rangers-160 over Seattle Mariners:
Texas has clearly been the surprise team in the American League all season long as they continue to put pressure on the Angels in the American League West. Pitching, of all things has been their strength and tonight they’ll get Vicente Padilla back after a short bout with the Swine Flu.

Padilla is 7-5 with a 4.67 ERA thus far in 2009. He has a strange habit of pitching well every other start and this start should be his good one if the trend continues. He gave up 5 runs on 11 hits his last time out, but only 1 run in six innings the start before that. The trend goes back a few more starts, but I won’t bore you with those details.

Rookie lefty Jason Vargas goes to the mound for the Mariners, and after starting his career off strong, he’s been terrible of late. He’s 1-2 with a 5.84 ERA in his last 5, but in three of those outings he’s combined for 15 runs allowed in just 12 2/3 innings. Look for the Ranger bats to really dominate the game tonight.

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