MLB Series of the Week
• games Monday July 18th – Sunday July 24th
* records are after Sunday July 17th, 2011 games
Toronto Blue Jays (47-49) @ Texas Rangers (55-41)
Date: Friday July 22nd – Sunday July 24th, 2011
Time: 8:05pm, 8:05pm, 8:05pm EST
Preview: Two American League teams will get together for a weekend series in Arlington, Texas. The Toronto Blue Jays come into the week two games under .500, and in fourth place in the American League East. The Blue Jays are 11 games out of first place in the division. Texas comes into the game as the hottest team in baseball; winners of 11 straight games. The Rangers have moved their AL West lead to 4 games. The Blue Jays are without the leading homerun hitter in all of baseball. Jose Bautista has yet to be placed on the disabled list; but will miss some time with an injury. Bautista has hit 31 homeruns and drove home 65 runs through the first 96 games. Toronto is the fourth highest scoring team in the league with 452 runs. The Blue Jays pitching has been up and down; behind Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow. Toronto has a team ERA of 4.15. Texas is absolutely red-hot. The Rangers finished up a three game sweep of Seattle on Sunday. The Rangers are batting .272 as a team, and
have scored 471 runs on the season. Both of those statistics are second best in all of baseball. Texas is led by Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz and Adrian Beltre offensively. The Rangers also have ten wins out of their staff ace C.J. Wilson. The pitching match-ups for this series are to be as expected: J.C. Romero vs. Matt Harrison, Carlos Villaneuva vs. Alexi Ogando and Brett Cecil vs. Derek Holland.
Other series of interest this week:
New York Yankees (55-37) @ Tampa Bay Rays (50-42)
Date: Monday July 18th – Thursday July 21st, 2011
Time: 7:00pm, 7:10pm, 7:10pm, 7:10pm EST
Preview: Rivals out of the American League East will get together in Tampa Bay for a four game series. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays will square off in one of the top rivalries in baseball. New York, as of early Sunday were just a game behind Boston; while the Rays are six back. Boston and Tampa Bay play on Sunday Night Baseball. The Yankees won their final two games of a series against divisional foe Toronto over the weekend. New York has scored 472 runs on the season, and also have a team batting average of .259. Robinson Cano has had a monster year for the Yankees, as he leads the team with a .296 average. Curtis Granderson has 25 homeruns and 68 runs batted in on the season. For Tampa Bay, they know in the second half, if they want in the postseason they are going to have to beat Boston and / or New York on a consistent basis. The Rays are 23rd in batting; with a .247 mark. Tampa Bay’s top offensive threat this season has been Matt Joyce. Joyce is hitting .29
5, while B.J. Upton has 15 homeruns and 52 runs batted in. The pitching match-ups for this series include: A.J. Burnett vs. TBA, Bartolo Colon vs. Jeremy Hellickson, Freddie Garcia vs. David Price and C.C. Sabathia vs. James Shields.
Milwaukee Brewers (51-45) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (51-44)
Date: Monday July 18th – Thursday July 21st, 2011
Time: 9:40pm, 9:40pm, 9:40pm, 9:40pm EST
Preview: The Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks are set to play a four game series this week in the desert. The Brewers come into Monday with a ½ game lead over St. Louis and Pittsburgh in the National League Central. Arizona is within shouting distance as well in the National League West. The Diamondbacks trail San Francisco by 3.5 games. The Brewers mlb picks have picked up Francisco Rodriguez, the former Mets closer during the All Star Break. Rodriguez picked up a win on Saturday and a hold on Sunday for Milwaukee. The Brewers will most likely be without their top offensive player; Ryan Braun. The left fielder has a calf and hamstring injury. Braun has a .315 batting average, which leads the entire team. Arizona beat Los Angeles 4-1 on Sunday to win the three game series. The Diamondbacks have seen Justin Upton and Chris Young provide solid seasons to keep Arizona in the race. The team earned run average; ranks 20th in MLB, but a major improvement from last season, when they we
re the worst in all of baseball. Milwaukee will send Randy Wolf, Yovani Gollardo, Chris Narveson and Zack Greinke to the mound in this series. The Diamondbacks will counter with Josh Collmenter, Barry Enright, Joe Saunders and Ian Kennedy.
St. Louis Cardinals (50-45) @ Pittsburgh Pirates (49-44)
Date: Friday July 22nd – Sunday July 24th, 2011
Time: 7:05pm, 7:05pm, 1:35pm EST
Preview: Two National League Central foes will get together over the weekend. The St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates will tangle. The Cardinals and Pirates are tied for second place in the National League Central; just ½ game behind Milwaukee. For the Pirates, a meaningful game approaching August is rare. Pittsburgh has not been over .500 to end the season in 20 years. The Cardinals are coming off losing two out of three to Cincinnati over the weekend. Albert Pujols is back after missing two weeks before the All Star break with a wrist injury. Pujols, teamed up with Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman make one of the scariest lineups in all of baseball. The Pirates are led by youngster Andrew McCutchen, who was named on the NL All Star team. The Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan has yet to blow a save all season. The pitching matchups for this series appear to be: Chris Carpenter, Jaime Garcia and Kyle Lohse for St. Louis; against Paul Maholm, Kevin Correia and James McDonal
d for Pittsburgh.