The first place Marlins battle the Dodgers at noon with Chad Billingsley facing Anibal Sanchez. Chad pitched poorly in the road so far this season with a .323 BA allowed. Sanchez owns a 1.23 ERA at home vs. 6.75 on the road this season.

Milwaukee is tied with the Cardinals for first in the NL Central. They finish their series with Cincinnati, who trails both teams by 1/2 game. Sam LeCure takes on Yovani Gallardo. I love Sam’s 17 K and four BB in 17 1/3 innings, but the four home runs allowed hurt him. Gallardo hasn’t quite been the ace of the staff, as he’s allowing more hits than usual. A lot of those are coming with men on base.

The best pitching match-up of the day goes to Boston at Baltimore, where Josh Beckett visits Jeremy Guthrie. Beckett has his home runs allowed under control and is allowing a hit about every other inning. Guthrie is repeating last year’s performance of keeping his line-drive rate at about 15%. Fewer line drives mean fewer hits.

Enjoy!