MLB Saturday – With Burnett’s Issues, Dodgers Could Beat Yankees

The New York Yankees are in town and L.A. is ready! The two historical baseball teams with a long standing rivalry (the Dodgers used to be in Brooklyn!), battle it out in the 2nd game of a 3 game series on Saturday.

The Yankees most likely will be the favorites in every single one of the games because of their reputation, but on Saturday they send A.J. Burnett to the mound. Anybody who’s been paying attention to the Yankees knows that Burnett has had some big time issues lately on the mound.

Will Burnett solve his issues? Or will Big Blue punish Burnett and send him to the dugout early?

New York Yankees vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA
When: June 26th, 2010 at 7:10 pm EST
TV: Yankees – YES
Dodgers – Prime
Radio: Yankees – WCBS 880, WADO 1280
Dodgers – KABC 790, KHJ 930

New York Yankees             Los Angeles Dodgers
A.J. Burnett               vs.       Hiroki Kuroda

Neither team has much of an edge in this game based on the MLB betting trends.

• The New York Yankees are 13 and 3 in their last 16 interleague road games versus a team with a winning record.
• The New York Yankees are 9 and 4 in their last 13 games on a Saturday.
• The New York Yankees are 1 and 4 in A.J. Burnett’s last 5 starts on the road.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers are 13 and 3 in their last 16 games versus a team with a 60% or above winning percentage.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers are 1 and 6 in their last 7 games overall.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers are 9 and 3 in Hiroki Kuroda’s last 12 starts at home.

This appears to be a competitive game against two evenly matched teams, but the bottom line is that A.J. Burnett has been absolutely awful lately.

Overall, Burnett is 6 and 6 with a 4.83 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP.  He’s been much worse in his last 4 games.  In his last 19.3 innings pitched, Burnett has allowed 29 hits and 24 runs.  He hasn’t lasted longer than 4 innings in his last 2 starts.

By contrast, Hiroki Kuroda has done very well in his last 4 games.  Kuroda is 6 and 5 with a 3.06 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP for the season.  In his last 4 games, he has pitched a total of 25 innings allowing 20 hits and 6 runs. 

Kuroda will need his team to step it up and get some runs for him but that shouldn’t be a problem facing the reeling Burnett.  The Dodgers have a great shot of bouncing back from a likely Friday night loss against the Yankees and pitcher CC Sabathia by taking down the Yankees and A.J. Burnett on Saturday.

The L.A. Dodgers will be the baseball bet in this Saturday game.

MLB Sportsbook Pick:  L.A. Dodgers