Baseball Odds – Zito Will Zap Marlins

After a wild MLB betting battle on Tuesday night, the San Francisco Giants and the Florida Marlins are back at it on Wednesday for the second game of their three game set at Sun Life Stadium.

Last night’s game was a wild one, as RHP Tim Lincecum was knocked around for three runs early, while his bullpen conceded three more late. However, a blown save by closer Leo Nunez and three runs off of RHP Burke Badenhop in the 12th inning later, and San Fran escaped with a 9-6 win.

San Francisco Giants (15-10, +$421) vs. Florida Marlins (13-13, -$154)

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, May 5th, 7:10 ET
Game Location: Sun Life Stadium, Miami, FL
TV/Radio Broadcast: Cox Sports Bay Area, Fox Sports Florida, XM

MLB Odds

San Francisco Giants        -1.5 +125      -135
(Barry Zito – L)
Florida Marlins                 +1.5 -145      +115
(Nate Robertson – L)
Total                               8.5 O -125     8.5 U +105

After several miserable seasons in the Bay area, could LHP Barry Zito finally be earning his keep with the Giants?

The southpaw is 4-0 this year with a 1.53 ERA, and his one non-win start of the season came in a 2-1 defeat at Los Angeles.

Zito hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a start this year, and he is doing a fantastic job of keeping his walks down (11) and his strikeouts up (24). He’s also eating a ton of innings to boot, as he has thrown eight frames in his L/2 starts and hasn’t pitched less than six innings once this year.

Zito has also pitched tremendously well against the Marlins in his career, going 4-0 with a 2.35 ERA in five career outings.

Things aren’t going so well for LHP Nate Robertson with his new team.

The lefty has failed to last past the fifth inning in four of his six starts this year, including a pair of miserable outings in a row against the Padres and Rockies in which he gave up five earned runs in just four innings of work.

If history is any indicator though, Manager Fredi Gonzalez may never really see better stuff out of his left-hander, as Robertson has a career ERA of 4.93 and is just 53-71 overall.

Robertson certainly needs to work on his strikeout to walk ratio; walking four batters a start as he has in each of his L/3 isn’t going to cut it, especially considering the fact that the most strikeouts he has in an outing this year is just four.

MLB Insider Tip: Robertson’s teams are just 1-8 in his L/9 starts and 3-10 in his L/13 at home.

Yikes. Backing Robertson right now seems like as good of an idea as running headfirst into a brick wall.

Historically, Zito is scary to back as a road favorite, but particularly after all of the struggles of the Florida bullpen last night, we’ll take our chances that the team that is just playing better baseball right now is going to figure out how to scratch out another win. It also doesn’t hurt that the Giants have won each of Zito’s L/5 starts against the Marlins.

Look for Zito and the Giants to zap the Marlins in Wednesday night MLB betting action.

My MLB Prediction: San Francisco Giants (Zito) >> Join NOW