{"id":16182,"date":"2011-06-21T14:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-21T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16182"},"modified":"2011-06-21T14:17:00","modified_gmt":"2011-06-21T19:17:00","slug":"two-teams-headed-in-opposite-directions-hot-minnesota-twins-travel-to-struggling-san-francisco-giants-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/two-teams-headed-in-opposite-directions-hot-minnesota-twins-travel-to-struggling-san-francisco-giants-betting-preview-16182\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Teams Headed In Opposite Directions: Hot Minnesota Twins Travel to Struggling San Francisco Giants – Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Twins (31-39) AT San Francisco Giants (39-33)<\/strong>
\nJune 21, 2011 at 10:15 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 SFG -150, MIN +130<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 SFG -144, MIN +125<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 7<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

SP:\u00a0 MIN- Carl Pavano; SFG- Madison Bumgarner<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Twins' ace Carl Pavano takes the mound tonight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a team sitting 8 games below .500, things couldn’t look more sunny for the Twins.\u00a0 They’ve won 14 of their last 16, including their last 7 in a row, and they are feeling good about their chances of making waves this season.<\/p>\n

“We’re smiling, we’re laughing.\u00a0 Winning’s great,”\u00a0 said Giants infielder Matt Tolbert.\u00a0 “It’s starting to feel like it did last year.\u00a0 We just need to keep the momentum.”<\/p>\n

The Giants might be just the right team to keep that momentum.\u00a0 Though they have the better record at this point, they have scored only 7 runs in their last 3 games and have gone 0 of 26 with runners in scoring position.\u00a0 Despite the three game losing streak, the Giants are still atop the NL West, but the Diamondbacks are threatening them.]<\/p>\n

Giants’ first baseman Aubrey Huff was blunt and to the point:<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one is happy,\u201d first baseman Aubrey Huff(notes) said. \u201cThere is no doubt about it that no one is where he wants to be. We have to figure ways to score, and it\u2019s going to be no easy task. We have to start working counts, getting on and putting pressure on the other guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl Pavano has been one of many bright spots for the Twins, as he has gone 2-0 with a 1.44 ERA in his three starts this month, two of which he pitched complete games.\u00a0 He’s coming off a victory on last Wednesday against teh White Sox, in which he threw only 96 pitches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m settling in a little better as far as getting a little stronger and consistent with the things I\u2019m trying to establish, and so is the team,\u201d said Pavano.<\/p>\n

The Twins have a host of injured players.\u00a0 Denard Span, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, and Jim Thome are all out.\u00a0 They did, however, get Joe Mauer back on Friday, but he is still struggling to get into the flow and hit 1 of 11 against San Diego.<\/p>\n

Madison Bumgarner will take the mound for the Giants.\u00a0 He is 3-8 despite a great 3.21 ERA, a true testament to the lack of run support he has received.\u00a0 He’s given up 3 or fewer runs in each of his last 10 starts, most of which have been quality starts, as he’s recorded a 2.03 ERA during that span.\u00a0 It was Bumgarner who started in the Giants’ last win, as he threw six innings and gave up only 2 runs in a win against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Bumgarner has been in much better condition this year than he was for most of last year, when he blamed his poor conditioning for the loss of speed on his fastball.\u00a0 His PECOTA projections predict an 11-8 season with a 3.84 ERA.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER In 4 of Minnesota’s last 6 games and the Twins are 5-0 in their last 5 games.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 on the road and the Twins are 6-1 SU in their last 7 road games.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Giants are 1-4 SU in their last 5 game sand the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 5 games and has also gone UNDER in 5 of their last 6 at home.\u00a0 The Giants are 15-7 SU in their last 22 home games.<\/p>\n

Both Pavano and Bumgarner have been effective this year, with Bumgarner being the more impressive and a large pat of why the Giants are favorites in this one.\u00a0 This should be a bit of a pitcher’s duel and the total is set low accordingly at 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota Twins (31-39) AT San Francisco Giants (39-33) June 21, 2011 at 10:15 PM EST Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 SFG -150, MIN +130 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 SFG -144, MIN +125 Opening Total:\u00a0 7 Current Total:\u00a0 7 SP:\u00a0 MIN- Carl Pavano; SFG- Madison Bumgarner For a team sitting 8 games below .500, things couldn’t look more sunny for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[240,736],"class_list":["post-16182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16182","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=16182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16183,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16182\/revisions\/16183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}