Tuesday June 20th Baseball

[Tinfish]

TORONTO BLUE JAYS @ ATLANTA BRAVES >>>> OVER 10.5 +110
Toronto (37-32, 14-18 away) at Atlanta (30-40, 14-17 home) 7:35 PM. EST

These days, the Atlanta Braves are experiencing many of the wrong types of firsts.

The Braves try to avoid their first eight-game losing streak in over 17 years Tuesday as they host the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game interleague series.

Atlanta is 3-17 in its last 20 games, which has dropped it 10 games under .500 and 14 games behind the New York Mets in the National League East. The Braves have not been 10 games under since ending 1990 with a 65-97 record and they have not been this far back since finishing 1990 26 game behind the Cincinnati Reds in the NL West.

The current losing streak is the longest since July 31-August 7, 1990, which came in the early weeks of Cox's tenure as manager. But Cox was in the front office for Atlanta's last eight-game losing streak which was from April 24-May 2, 1989, when Russ Nixon was the manager.

The Braves appeared to snap their skid Sunday against Boston but suffered a 10-7 defeat. Jeff Francoeur's three-run homer in the seventh inning was wasted as Macay McBride and Chad Paronto combined to allow six runs in the eighth, spoiling seven solid innings from John Smoltz.

Toronto also enters cold, as it managed just four runs and stranded 29 runners in a three-game sweep at Florida, where the only bright spot was Bengie Molina extending his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games. Before falling to 0-6 in interleague play this season, the Blue Jays had won six of their previous 10 overall.

Both teams pitched their aces Sunday but Tuesday will be a matchup of struggling pitchers.

Atlanta will send Jorge Sosa (1-9, 5.35 ERA, 1.54 Whip *Yikes!), who was 13-3 for them last season. In five starts since recording his only win of the season on May 18, Sosa is 0-4 with a 5.10 ERA.

Toronto's Josh Towers (1-8, 9.00 ERA, 1.93 Whip *Yikes!) also won 13 games last season but has been awful this year. Since lasting a 1 2/3 innings vs. Tampa Bay on May 24, Towers went 2-2 with a 2.48 ERA in four starts for Class AAA Syracuse of the International League.

Last 3 Games: *Yikes!
Towers (1-1, 6.75 ERA, 1.43 Whip)
Sosa (0-3) 7.02 ERA, 1.80 Whip)

Head to Head:
• Over is 7-1-0 in the last 8 meetings.
• TOR are 7-2 in the last 9 meetings.

[Tinfish]

ST. LOUIS CARDINALS ML+145 @ CHICAGO WHITE SOX
St Louis (42-26, 18-13 away) at Chi White Sox (44-25, 24-10 home) 8:05 pm EDT

Mark Mulder dominated the Chicago White Sox while a member of the American League earlier this decade. He will look to resume that mastery Tuesday when he makes his first start against them as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.

With Oakland from 2000-04, Mulder (6-4, 5.32 ERA, 1.47 Whip) went 5-1 with a 2.47 ERA in eight starts against the White Sox. He tossed three consecutive complete games vs. Chicago in 2003, including a five-hit shutout on May 6.

Despite posting a 6-5 win at Pittsburgh in his most recent start Thursday, the 28-year-old Mulder has gone through a rough stretch of late. He owns a 10.89 ERA with eight home runs allowed in his last four starts.

Mulder also has struggled overall on the road this season, going 2-3 with an 8.10 ERA in seven road outings. He will square off against Javier Vazquez (7-4, 4.54 ERA, 1.25 Whip) , who has enjoyed little success against the Cardinals in his career.


GOOD LUCK EVERYONE either way >>>>
Vazquez has gone 1-6 despite a respectable 4.13 ERA in eight career starts vs. St. Louis. He pitched a three-hitter in his most recent start against the Cardinals on July 6 but was outdueled by eventual National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter in a 2-1 setback.

David Eckstein's squeeze play in the ninth inning brought home So Taguchi with the go-ahead run in that game.

Eckstein, who ranks third in the NL with 86 hits, is expected to return to St. Louis' lineup Tuesday after missing the weekend series against Colorado with a slight concussion.

Vazquez allowed six runs and 10 hits in six innings of an 8-0 loss at Texas on Wednesday, marking his first defeat since May 18. It also was the lone setback in Chicago's seven-game road trip, which concluded Sunday with an 8-1 triumph in Cincinnati.

White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko was named AL Player of the Week on Monday after batting .522 (12-for-23) with seven RBI during the road trip.