Wednesday MLB Best Bet: White Sox vs. Orioles

Written by Jake Thompson
Wednesday, 10 August 2011 03:26

The White Sox and Orioles have been selected for the Wednesday MLB best bet as we go for 12 straight wins.

Wednesday’s MLB best bet between the Baltimore Orioles (44-69) and the Chicago White Sox (57-58) is the one wager you’ll want to make all day.  Online sportsbooks have the MLB odds favoring the road-team White Sox at -127 with the total set at 9 runs.  We’ve been unable to lose lately and hope to continue that success in this 7:05 PM ET American League clash.

Although the Orioles are dead in the water at 26.5 games behind in the American League East standings, the White Sox are still very much alive at just 4.5 games back in the American League Central.  Although teams are usually much stronger at home, Chicago actually has a better mark on the road (32-26) than in their own stadium.  The Orioles took 3 of 4 in Chicago earlier this season but the White Sox have taken 2 straight since the series went back to Baltimore.

Right-hander Tommy Hunter (1-2, 1.33 WHIP, 4.43 ERA) is getting the start for the Orioles after being acquired via trade from the Texas Rangers earlier in the week.  Hunter had been a reliever all season and struggled against the Toronto Blue Jays (4.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER) in his first start for the Orioles.  The White Sox have hit .267 over their last 10 games and seem to be heating up a bit after going through some stretches of offensive inactivity.

Baltimore has hit just .229 over their last 10 games and will be trying to improve on that number against Chicago right-hander Phillip Humber (8-8, 1.10 WHIP, 3.56 ERA).  Although Humber has exceeded expectations this season, he has lost his last 4 starts and has a 7.97 ERA over that time.  He did pitch great against the Orioles earlier this season (7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER), but Humber does appear to be hitting some sort of a wall and his arm might be tired.

One thing to note in this game is that home plate umpire Bill Miller has been calling low-scoring games all season long.  In the games that he’s been in charge of balls and strikes, the average total has been only 7.67 combined runs with a 65.0 strike percentage.  A huge edge that the White Sox have here is in the bullpen, where their relief pitchers (3.15 ERA) have been much more reliable than their Baltimore counterparts (4.83 ERA).

I do think that the White Sox are a decent enough wager here, but I’m going with the total as the MLB best bet.  Despite the umpire history, the easy pick here has to be on the over 9 runs.  Humber can’t be trusted right now because of arm fatigue while Hunter looked horrible last time out after taking nearly a year off from starting.  Combine that with Baltimore’s horrid bullpen and you have a game that should sail over the total.

White Sox 7

Orioles 4