MLB Betting: Philadelphia Phillies at Miami Marlins
MLB baseball action on Sunday as the Philadelphia Phillies conclude a three game series in Miami against the Marlins. The home team managed to scratch out a win on Saturday to even the set but that’s little consolation to a Miami team that is in the running for the dubious sobriquet of ‘the worst team in baseball’. Even with Saturday’s win Miami is 2-9 on the year and already 8 games behind the red hot Atlanta Braves in the National League East. The Phillies aren’t exactly tearing up the division themselves but they’re at least ‘treading water’ with a 5-6 record.
Perhaps the biggest question of the baseball season so far has concerned Phillies’ righthander Roy Halladay, who gets the start today. Halladay has two horrible outings already this season and there’s no unanimity as to the reason why. Some suggest that he’s just ‘playing his way back into form’ following an injury plagued 2012 season while others suggest that he’s still hurt. In any case, he’s been a pale shadow of his usual self and brings a whopping 14.73 ERA into this game. Some of these questions should be answered today as Halladay is making a drastic step down in class–and particularly offensive class. To date Halladay has faced an Atlanta team that is proving to be the class of the league and a surprising New York Mets team that is scoring runs in buckets. Miami is downright pitiful on offense–they’re dead last in the Majors in runs scored averaging only 1.7 per game. At home they’ve been even worse averaging less than 1 run per game (0.7).
Halladay’s opponent here, Kevin Slowey, has pitched relatively well this season but has received no run support and all he has to show for his efforts is two losses in two games. We’re going to take a shot on Halladay against the pitiful Marlins–even a pedestrian right hander can handle Miami’s sputtering offense and Halladay has been very good against them throughout his career with a 7-4 record and a 3.09 ERA. Halladay needs a strong outing and he should get one here facing a ‘made to order’ opponent that has done little right in the 2013 MLB season.
BET PHILADELPHIA (HALLADAY) -125 OVER MIAMI (SLOWEY)
