Baseball Betting: A good pitching matchup is set for Friday night as the Philadelphia Phillies visit the San Francisco Giants. The Phillies are expected to go with Cole Hamels who comes into the contest with an ERA of 2.37 while the Giants should be going with Madison Bumgarner who has a 3.22 ERA this season. Let’s look at the matchup and baseball picks.
Probable Pitchers – Hamels vs. Bumgarner
If Hamels pitched on a better team he might be in the Cy Young discussion behind Clayton Kershaw but Hamels plays on a rotten Phillies team. Hamels is just 6-6 on the season but his ERA is 2.37. The Phillies just don’t score many runs when he is on the mound. It is almost inconceivable that his record in his last three starts is 1-1 even though his ERA in those starts is 0.41. He is 6-3 in his career against the Giants with a 3.53 ERA.
Madison Bumgarner comes into the contest at 13-9 with a 3.22 ERA. He threw a complete game last time out against Kansas City but he allowed three earned runs and took the loss. He is 1-2 in his last three starts with a 3.43 ERA. He has pitched well in is career against the Phillies with a 2-2 record and a 2.89 ERA.
Game Notes
This is the first game of a three-game series and it should be a good series for the Giants. They have won six of the last ten in the series. The one concern for San Francisco is that they are just 4-6 in the last ten at home against the Phillies. They dropped two of three last season at home against Philadelphia with two of those games going over the total. The Giants actually had a losing record at home at 29-30 before this current home stand began. And surprisingly, the Phillies have played better this season on the road than at home.
Baseball Picks
It is hard to see how either of these teams scores more than a couple of runs so we’ll look for the contest to go under the total.
