New York Mets vs. Cincinnati Reds
MLB Pick: Cincinnati Reds -140 odds (July 28th 2011)
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New York posted an 8-2 victory Wednesday and are looking more like a playoff caliber club than their counterparts and in fact do have the better record. Instead the Mets find themselves victims of being in the National League East where Philadelphia and Atlanta are leaving the rest of the division in their rear view mirrors. The NYM have now three straight and need to keep it going long term to make a run at the playoffs but realistically the team must realize the team is playing for pride and little else. New York has been playing the role of spoiler to perfection the last several days against playoff minded Cincinnati with a solid combination of pitching and hitting which hasn’t always been the case in 2011 and a big part of the reason they are in third place in the East looking up. The Mets send Chris Capuano to the bump for the sweep but he has been on a personal three game slide. Capuano has been on the mediocre side of things in his past two outings allowing eight runs in 13.1 innings.
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Cincinnati has certainly looked flat in the first three games of a four game set against the Mets to fall four games below .500. Losing is bad enough but the bats and pitching has been less than inspiring but the good news is that the three teams ahead of the Reds in the National League Central aren’t distinguishing themselves as of yet which is keeping the Reds alive by default. It was another poor effort from Bronson Arroyo who allowed four earned runs in six innings and his 5.58 ERA is simply a liability especially the way Cincinnati is struggling at the plate. Their two run, seven hit performance won’t win many games either but there is ample time to fix what is broken and whether that happens is just a wait and see scenario. Right hander Homer Bailey gets the ball Thursday to break the team’s slide and give him his third consecutive victory in the process. Bailey generally wins when he pitches well and loses if he doesn’t and the Reds are desperate to get and stay hot.