Tampa Bay Rays vs. Minnesota Twins – Now or Never for Liriano

Tampa Bay Rays vs. Minnesota Twins 8:10 ET

The sports betting season for baseball bettors is in full swing, and BetOnline.com has every pitch, catch, and crack of the bat covered! As a part of a full slate of Tuesday night MLB betting action, the Tampa Bay Rays (8-12, -$523) will tangle with the Minnesota Twins (9-11, -$292) in the Metrodome. The defending AL Champs took the first game of this series on Monday night behind 5 2/3rd strong innings from rookie starter Jeff Niemann. 1B Carlos Pena blasted his MLB-best ninth homer of the young season to cap the victory. Still, the Rays are only 3-6 in their L/9 games, and have dropped $462 in that stretch for Tampa Bay bettors. Will the Rays continue their winning ways on Tuesday?

The oddsmakers originally thought so, as Tampa Bay opened as -120 favorites, but since then, Twins bettors pushed the line to +100 before rays backers moved the line back in favor of Tampa Bay; the ‘total’ currently sits at 8 over -105.

RHP James Shields was dominant in his last start against the Mariners. His only blunder was a leadoff homer by RF Ichiro Suzuki. After that, he pitched 7.1 scoreless innings, but the damage was already done. The Rays only managed four hits, and only got one runner past second base the entire game. Save a 2-2 record, the rest of Shields’ numbers are pretty much on par with his L/2 seasons. His 3.67 ERA and 1.11 WHIP are both right there with his 3.56 ERA and 1.15 WHIP of 2008. Shields’ strikeout total is a bit low on the season (4.33 K/9), but that number should improve over time. The righty’s career against Minnesota hasn’t gone well (6.26 ERA and 1.74 WHIP in four career starts). The Rays are just 1-3 in those four outings.

Is something seriously wrong with Minnesota’s stud lefty? LHP Francisco Liriano is 0-4 in four starts this season, with an ERA over a touchdown. No pitcher in the American League has done more damage to baseball bettors than Liriano, who has accounted for $456 worth of losses. In his last outing, the red hot Red Sox rocked him for seven runs in just four innings, but a closer look at the numbers may suggest that he had a bunch of terrible luck. Of the eight runners he allowed to reach base, seven scored, and that was after only allowing one home run. Still, there’s no excuse for giving up that many runs in that short of an outing, and it’s something that Liriano must correct in order to stay in Manager Rod Gardenhire’s rotation.

Liriano is running out of time before he gets the bust tag stuck on him. online bettors know what the lefty can do, as he went 12-3 in 16 starts in 2006, but that was a long time ago. Shields isn’t nearly the same pitcher away from the Trop as he is there, and that paired with Liriano’s career 2-0 mark, 0.57 ERA, and 0.77 WHIP against the Rays should be enough to propel Minnesota to victory in the second game of this series.

Rose’s Recommendation: 3* Minnesota Twins +100

(Rating Scale: 1* – 5*)