Last Updated on June 24, 2016 11:56 am by Brad Burns
Pirates enter crucial series with Dodgers
At the risk of putting intense pressure on a 24-year-old rookie, the Pirates need Jameson Taillon to come up big tonight.
The former first-round draft pick makes his fourth MLB start in tonight’s series opener vs. the Dodgers, with a 7:05 p.m. ET first pitch at PNC Park. It appears as though online sports book BetDSI also has high expectations for Taillon, giving the hosts odds of -130 to prevail. Dave Roberts’ club enters as a +110 underdog. The over/under run total, meanwhile, holds steady at eight.
Pittsburgh just dropped two in a row to San Diego and now sits a distant 14 games behind Chicago in the National League Central race. The injuries are piling up, too, with Starling Marte and Andrew McCutchen dealing with different degrees of discomfort. Taillon could improve the collective mood around the Steel City by drawing on last week’s outing vs. the Mets, in which the Florida native twirled eight scoreless frames. He limited the defending NL champs to a mere two hits that afternoon.
Taillon’s counterpart this evening is similarly youthful. Nick Tepesch arrives by way of Class AAA Oklahoma City to shore up the back end of the Dodgers’ rotation. The righty’s most recent work in the majors came in 2014, when he went 5-11 with a 4.36 ERA for the Rangers.
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Second-place Los Angeles continues to roll, having captured six in a row. The Buccos simply can’t offer much offensive resistance, so Taillon essentially draws the short straw here. Take the Dodgers to win their 19th road contest of the campaign.
FRIDAY MLB FREE PICK: DODGERS/PIRATES OVER 8 RUNS
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