Jake Peavy is having a great comeback season for the White Sox after several off years, while Luke Hochevar is coming around for the Royals and he was great in the second half last year. Go ‘under’ in Kauffman Stadium on Saturday night.
Expect a low scoring game in an American League Central Division battle Saturday night when Jake Peavy and the Chicago White Sox (48-38 overall, 24-16 away) take on Luke Hochevar and the Kansas City Royals (37-48 overall, 14-24 home) as the teams continue a weekend three-game series from the site of this year’s All-Star Game, Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, MO at 7:10 ET.
The posted total at 5 Dimes is 8½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -106.
The Detroit Tigers were picked by many experts to run away with this division before the season started, but it has not worked out that way as few expected these White Sox to be 10 games over .500 at this stage of the year. Chicago sits atop the Central with a three-game lead on the second place Cleveland Indians with the Tigers in third place and 3½ games out.
The White Sox took the series opener in a slugfest 9-8 here last night as neither starting pitcher had his stuff, but we look for a much different type of game Saturday given this pitching matchup.
Jake Peavy was the 2007 Cy Young Award winner while pitching for the San Diego Padres in the National League, but he had been unable to match those numbers prior to this season and even we were starting to have our doubts about Peavy, thinking that perhaps his numbers in San Diego were helped by pitching in the most pitcher-friendly stadium in baseball.
However, Peavy has quieted a lot of skeptics with a fine comeback season this year. He may be just 7-5 overall, but he has a sparkling 2.85 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in 120 innings with 108 strikeouts against only 26 walks. Peavy has six Quality Starts in his last seven outings includinglimiting the Toronto Blue Jays to one run and five hits in 7.1 innings with seven strikeouts in his last start before the break.
Granted Peavy has not fared that well vs. Kansas City since coming into the American League, going 4-4 with a 4.56 ERA in nine starts against them, but then again he has not faced the Royals yet this year and he has not been as good as he is this season since switching leagues.
The Royals were a popular sleeper pick to do some damage before the year, but Kansas City has had surprising difficulty winning games at home where they are 10 games under .500, and as a result KC is in fourth place 10½ games behind the White Sox. They now look to turn things round with Hochevar on the bump.
We must mention that last season, Hochevar had a very slow first half of the season but he then pitched very well in the second half, posting a 3.52 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 12 starts after the All-Star break while holding opposing batters to a .222 batting average.
We mention this because the first overall pick of the 2006 draft was off to another slow start this season but he has turned things around in recent starts, so another strong second half by the 28-year-old does not seem out of the question.
Yes, he is just 6-8 with a brutal 5.14 ERA and 1.39 WHIP this season, but he has allowed three runs or less on four of his last five starts including not allowing a single run in two of those outings with one of them being a Complete Game shutout of the Tampa Bay Rays. Furthermore, he was brilliant in his only start vs. the White Sox this year, tossing seven scoreless innings and allowing only three hits and one walk in Chicago on May 12th.
Finally the ‘under’ is 13-6 in the last 19 White Sox games overall and that trend should continue with this matchup in Kansas City on Saturday.
The posted total at 5 Dimes is 8½ for this contest with the current odds on the ‘under’ set at -106.
The Detroit Tigers were picked by many experts to run away with this division before the season started, but it has not worked out that way as few expected these White Sox to be 10 games over .500 at this stage of the year. Chicago sits atop the Central with a three-game lead on the second place Cleveland Indians with the Tigers in third place and 3½ games out.The White Sox took the series opener in a slugfest 9-8 here last night as neither starting pitcher had his stuff, but we look for a much different type of game Saturday given this pitching matchup.
Jake Peavy was the 2007 Cy Young Award winner while pitching for the San Diego Padres in the National League, but he had been unable to match those numbers prior to this season and even we were starting to have our doubts about Peavy, thinking that perhaps his numbers in San Diego were helped by pitching in the most pitcher-friendly stadium in baseball.
However, Peavy has quieted a lot of skeptics with a fine comeback season this year. He may be just 7-5 overall, but he has a sparkling 2.85 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in 120 innings with 108 strikeouts against only 26 walks. Peavy has six Quality Starts in his last seven outings includinglimiting the Toronto Blue Jays to one run and five hits in 7.1 innings with seven strikeouts in his last start before the break.
Granted Peavy has not fared that well vs. Kansas City since coming into the American League, going 4-4 with a 4.56 ERA in nine starts against them, but then again he has not faced the Royals yet this year and he has not been as good as he is this season since switching leagues.
The Royals were a popular sleeper pick to do some damage before the year, but Kansas City has had surprising difficulty winning games at home where they are 10 games under .500, and as a result KC is in fourth place 10½ games behind the White Sox. They now look to turn things round with Hochevar on the bump.
We must mention that last season, Hochevar had a very slow first half of the season but he then pitched very well in the second half, posting a 3.52 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 12 starts after the All-Star break while holding opposing batters to a .222 batting average.
We mention this because the first overall pick of the 2006 draft was off to another slow start this season but he has turned things around in recent starts, so another strong second half by the 28-year-old does not seem out of the question.
Yes, he is just 6-8 with a brutal 5.14 ERA and 1.39 WHIP this season, but he has allowed three runs or less on four of his last five starts including not allowing a single run in two of those outings with one of them being a Complete Game shutout of the Tampa Bay Rays. Furthermore, he was brilliant in his only start vs. the White Sox this year, tossing seven scoreless innings and allowing only three hits and one walk in Chicago on May 12th.
Finally the ‘under’ is 13-6 in the last 19 White Sox games overall and that trend should continue with this matchup in Kansas City on Saturday.
White Sox, Royals ‘under’ 8½ (-106) ---
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