{"id":14935,"date":"2011-04-15T13:20:30","date_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=14935"},"modified":"2011-04-15T13:31:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:31:02","slug":"al-betting-preview-minnesota-twins-at-tampa-bay-rays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/al-betting-preview-minnesota-twins-at-tampa-bay-rays-14935\/","title":{"rendered":"AL Betting Preview: Minnesota Twins At Tampa Bay Rays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Twins (4-8) AT Tampa Bay Rays (4-8)<\/strong>
\n April 15, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST<\/strong>
\n Opening Runline:\u00a0 TAM -1.5 +170, MIN +1.5 -200<\/strong>
\n Current Runline:\u00a0 TAM -1.5 +155, MIN +1.5 -175<\/strong>
\n Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 TAM -125, MIN +105<\/strong>
\n Current Moneyline:\u00a0 TAM -133, MIN +113<\/strong>
\n Opening Total: 8.5<\/strong>
\n Current Total: 8.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 MIN- N. Blackburn, TAM- W. Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Nick Blackburn will take the mound for the 4-8 Twins tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Things just went from bad to worse for the Twins.\u00a0 Already struggling along at 4-8, they just sent their best player Joe Mauer to the DL.\u00a0 The Twins have dropped two straight and lost 4-3 in a 10 inning game on Thursday.\u00a0 The announcement that Mauer would be on the DL for 15 days was made after the game.\u00a0 Mauer had been struggling, batting .235 with only 4 RBIs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to go fly to Baltimore and see his doctor there, and then he\u2019ll head home to start rehab of getting his body and his legs in shape,\u201d manager Ron Gardenhire said. \u201cI think they say it was bilateral leg weakness, which is causing all kinds of soreness. He\u2019s compensating because of the surgery he had this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Twins OBP is only .287 and they are averaging only 3.0 runs per game.\u00a0 Mauer’s PECOTA projections predict a .317 BA, 75 RBIs, 17 HRs in 585 plate apperances.\u00a0 Mauer’s injury will hurt those plate apperances and in turn affect his entire stats.\u00a0 The start is not good.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t panic,\u201d said Gardenhire, whose team has dropped four of five. \u201cYou can\u2019t worry about it. You just have to keep playing. You have to learn through those things and you just have to keep plugging away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thursday, Minnesota’s Danny Valencia went 3 for 4 and gave the Twins a 3-2 lead with an RBI single.\u00a0 Morneau and Thome both went 2 for 5 from the plate.\u00a0 No Twins player homered.\u00a0 Tampa Bay’s Matt Joyce also went 3 of 4 with 2 RBIs and Sam Fuld went 2 of 5 from the plate (Fuld is hitting .375 over his 5 game hitting streak), and it was enough for the Rays to win the game 4-3.\u00a0 Johnny Damon’s walk off homer clinched the game for Tampa Bay.\u00a0 While Damon is batting only .217, he has homered 3 of his 9 hits.\u00a0 The Rays have now won 3 straight after beginning the season 1-7.<\/p>\n

Minnesota starting pitcher Nick Blackburn allowed only one run, unearned, in a 1-0 loss to the Oakland A’s.\u00a0 Lifetime against the Rays, Blackburn is 2-2 with a 6.10 ERA and he is 1-1 with a 9.82 ERA at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay will send Wade Davis to the mound, who is 0-2 with a 4.38 ERA. In his two outings, he received a total of 1.46 runs support from the offense.\u00a0 Davis’ PECOTA projections predict an 11-9 record with a 4.12 ERA.\u00a0 The ERA is close to his actual ERA, but the lack of run support may hinder what would have been a good record.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s tough,\u201d\u00a0 White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cHe changes speeds very well. He mixes up his pitches very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Minnesota is 1-4 SU in their last 5 games and the total has gone UNDER in 6 of Minnesota’s last 7 games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 on the road and the Twins are 3-11 SU in their last 14 games on the road.\u00a0 Minnesota is 2-5 SU in their last 7 games at Tampa Bay and the total has gone UNDER in 7 of Minnesota’s last 9 games on the road in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays are 4-2 SU in their last 6 games and the total has gone UNDER in 21 of the last 25 games.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 4-9 SU in their last 13 games and the total has gone UNDER in 12 of the last 13 Rays’ home games.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 1-9 SU in their last 10 games at home and the Rays are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games against the Twins.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 7 of Tampa Bay’s last 9 games at home against the Twins.<\/p>\n

Given the fact the Twins are missing Mauer and they are already struggling, things really don’t look good.\u00a0 Wade Davis has actually been pitching better than his ERA and record suggest, so if he can keep the Twins close to shutout, look for the Rays to cruise to victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Twins (4-8) AT Tampa Bay Rays (4-8) April 15, 2011 at 7:10 PM EST Opening Runline:\u00a0 TAM -1.5 +170, MIN +1.5 -200 Current Runline:\u00a0 TAM -1.5 +155, MIN +1.5 -175 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 TAM -125, MIN +105 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 TAM -133, MIN +113 Opening Total: 8.5 Current Total: 8.5 SP:\u00a0 MIN- N. Blackburn, TAM- W. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[240,150],"class_list":["post-14935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14935"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14938,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14935\/revisions\/14938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}