Thursday, November 24, 2011

Tigers will look to win their 10th straight

By Tony Flecter


The scorching-hot Detroit Tigers will look to win their 10th straight game on Monday night when they travel to Chicago to face the White Sox. Detroit has opened up a commanding 10-game lead over Chicago, and the Tigers' magic number is now seven. Vegas odds.

Getting the ball for Detroit is Rick Porcello (13-8, 4.87 ERA) who has had a dreadful history against Chicago, going 1-4 with a 7.46 ERA in six starts. Hurling for the White Sox is lefty John Danks (6-11, 4.09 ERA). Danks has had a rough time as of late, allowing 13 runs (12 ER) in 10.2 innings over his past two starts, both losses. Detroit has beaten up on division opponents this year, going 43-21 (+17.2 Units), and has also been terrific coming off wins (49-34). Chicago has not defended its home field too well, with a 33-39 home mark (-17.1 Units). The pick here is for DETROIT to keep the streak going on Monday night and make it 10 straight in a lopsided road victory.

Some more FoxSheets trends cautioning against Chicago include this pair:

CHI WHITE SOX are 10-21 (32.3%, -14.2 Units) against the money line after 3 straight games where they committed no errors this season. The average score was CHI WHITE SOX 3.5, OPPONENT 5.7 - (Rating = 2*). Betting lines.

Play Against - All favorites with a money line of -110 or higher (CHI WHITE SOX) - terrible offensive team (4.2 runs/game) against an average starting pitcher (ERA= 4.70 to 5.70)-AL, after 2 straight games where they committed no errors. (34-22 since 1997.) (60.7%, +22.2 units. Rating = 2*).

Detroit's nine-game win streak is the longest since its championship season of 1984. A big part of the Tigers recent success is due to their bullpen who have recorded a 2.20 ERA over the past 36 games. A mixture between good hitting and solid pitching has resulted in Detroit winning 10 of Porcello's last 12 starts. Porcello has been strong of late with a 2.75 ERA in his past three starts including two outings of allowing only one run.

Danks pitched very well against Detroit in April (6 IP, 3 ER, 8 K) and July (6 IP, 1 ER, 10 K), but the Tigers lit him up on Sept. 2, banging out nine hits and eight runs in 4.2 IP. Danks will need to find a way to get out Magglio Ordonez, who is 16-for-32 with two home runs against the lefty. Paul Konerko is looking for his 30th home run of the season on Monday night, which would give him 30 homers for the seventh consecutive season. Konerko has been the rock in that Chicago lineup for many years and has always provided clutch hitting and power. Sports scores.




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