Tigers White Sox Betting – Detroit Needs Wins, Chicago Needs Them More

The Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox both have a lot of ground to make up as they chase the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central Division. They meet this weekend.

American League Series Betting Pick:

The MLB baseball betting experts who follow the American League Central can’t be feeling very comfortable right now. The defending champion Minnesota Twins have sunk to the very bottom of the division, more than 15 games out of first place in just two short months. It’s been astounding to see Minnesota’s fall from grace not just because the Twins have been a model franchise on the field over the past several seasons, but because the rest of the division was viewed to be very weak. Not much was expected from the Detroit Tigers or Chicago White Sox before the season started, and sure enough, neither team has lit up the world over the first two months of the season. It’s Cleveland which has taken this division by the horns, leading Detroit by seven games in the loss column and burying Chicago by 12 games in the loss column when Memorial Day weekend arrived. Will anyone challenge Cleveland and make the Central a real fight? It seems that Detroit is best positioned to do so, but with over 100 games remaining, the fourth-place White Sox can still make a charge. The third-place Kansas City Royals, with their history of being a so-called farm team for bigger MLB clubs, are not being given much of a chance to mount a rally. This is the case despite Kansas City’s ability to hang around the .500 mark for two solid months.

At any rate, there’s a three-game set waiting to be played, and while Detroit can really use some wins this weekend on the South Side of Chicago, the homestanding White Sox need the wins more. On Friday, Andrew Oliver starts for Detroit, while Mark Buehrle goes for the White Sox. Oliver totes a 4.50 earned-run average to the bump, while Buehrle – a veteran – has labored to a 3.91 earned-run mark this season. Trust Buehrle to find more ways to get outs. He might not be spectacular, but he should be solid against Detroit’s so-so batting order.

A successful sports bet on this game should point in one direction and one direction only: to the Tigers. Detroit will send its ace, Justin Verlander, to the hill with a 3.12 earned-run average. Verlander has already thrown a no-hitter this year in Toronto. He should be full of confidence in this game. Meanwhile, Chicago will go with Edwin Jackson, an underachieving pitcher who carries a 4.63 earned-run average into this game. Verlander is a stopper while Jackson just can’t give his career the extra boost it needs. Don’t complicate things; pick Detroit.

A collection of astute sports betting observers could go one of two ways in this game. They could pick Detroit starter Brad Penny, he of the 4.72 earned-run average, over Chicago starter John Danks, who sports a 5.25 mark. On the other hand, they could look at Danks’ 0-8 record and conclude that a regular starter – a core part of the White Sox’s rotation – can’t go through a season winless. Danks has lost at least three games in which his team failed to score at least four runs. It would seem that he’s due for a win this Sunday. Take Chicago.