MLB Predictions – Giants Face Marlins

The San Francisco Giants hit the road on their first East Coast swing of the season, and their first stop on this week and a half long trip will have them at Sun Life Stadium to face the Florida Marlins in MLB betting action.

The G-Men just wrapped up a nine game home stand in which they took two out of three games from the Cardinals, Phillies, and Rockies.

The Fish started this nine game home stand with a ‘W’, but losses in their next three were killers. Florida did fire back with victories on Saturday and Sunday over the Nats to get back over .500.

San Francisco Giants (14-10, +$321) vs. Florida Marlins (13-12, -$54)

• Game Date/Time: Tuesday, May 4th, 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 -110 -175 (Tim Lincecum – R)

Florida Marlins +1.5 -110 +155 (Anibal Sanchez – R)

Total 7.5 O EVEN 7.5 U -120

It just doesn’t get much better than RHP Tim Lincecum. Inevitably, the right-hander will once again by a Cy Young Award candidate in the National League. He is off to a great start this year, going 4-0 with a 1.27 ERA in five starts.

Opposing batters are hitting just .175 against Lincecum. The even sicker statistic about him is that he has only walked seven batters in 35.1 innings against 43 strikeouts. Many think that Lincecum could strike out 300 batters this year, and if he keeps up this pace over 34 starts, he’ll be at 292 by season’s end.

Lincecum has only faced Florida once in his career, allowing two runs in 7.1 innings, earning the win in the process.

It will be a daunting task for RHP Anibal Sanchez to take on Lincecum on Tuesday night, but he has the goods to do some damage.

The right-hander may only be 1-2 on the season, but he has pitched significantly better of late than his record and 4.32 ERA indicate.

Sanchez allowed seven hits and two earned runs in 6.1 innings of work against the Padres in his last start and was a tough luck loser in a 4-1 loss. However, that marked his second straight solid outing after allowing five runs in each of his first two trips to the mound in 2010.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez also has to be thrilled with Sanchez’s seven strikeouts in that defeat against the Pads, as he only averaged 4.4 Ks per start in 2009 and had only K’d seven in his first three this year.

This will be Sanchez’s first career start against San Francisco.

MLB Insider Tip: The Marlins are 15-7 in Sanchez’s L/22 starts at Sun Life Stadium.

There really is no comparison between Lincecum and Sanchez, and that pretty much goes without saying. However, the odds in this game are a tad bit ridiculous. The Marlins should really never be home underdogs of great than +150 even if a prospective 20 game winner is on the hill opposing them.

Take the nice price on the Fish to fry the G-Men in MLB betting action tonight.

My MLB Prediction: Florida Marlins (Sanchez) << SIGN UP NOW >>