I took yesterday off just to grab a break here as my prep work for football season (NCAA and NFL) picks up quite a bit with each passing day. I'll have some season win totals for NFL and future bets posted up here at D Rock Sports soon enough, but for now it's still all about baseball as it's the only game in town. Getaway day brought plenty of afternoon action today in the majors but there are still a couple of spots I really like tonight. All lines taken from Pinnacle Sports with bet amounts 'to win' on favorites and flat on underdogs. Play of the Day in Bold MLB pre All Star Break: 101-107-13 (+$691) MLB post All Ster Break: 12-9 (+$1313) CFL YTD: 4-3 (+$588) MLB Plays Seattle/Cleveland Over 6.5 (+114) $300 to win $342 Seattle's played eight straight games under the total sporting a 3-5 SU record in those contests. They've got their ace Felix Hernandez on the hill who's gone 'under' the total in each of his last five starts and eight of his last nine. Hernandez has 13 straight starts of 7+ innings pitched with 2 earned runs or less allowed and only one team has scored more than two on him during that time (Boston got 3). We've got an umpire that's gone under the total in seven of his last nine so what's not to like about this total play.... Oh yeah, I said 'over' 6.5 tonight as we are in the business of predicting the future not reporting on the past. Yes, all those numbers are great for the King, but streaks are made to be broken and tonight could be that night for Hernandez. Seattle [...]

Split the board but made a bit of dough with my top play on the 'over' in Oakland cashing easily. It was a good week for free picks as I come out of the All Star break with a 12-8 record in baseball. I'm hoping this week can start off on a similar note with these plays on a short card tonight. All lines taken from Pinnacle Sports with bet amounts 'to win' on favorites and flat on underdogs Play of the Day in Bold MLB Pre All-Star Break: 101-107-13 (+$691) MLB Post All-Star Break: 12-8 (+$1628) CFL YTD: 4-3 (+$588) MLB plays Toronto/Boston Under 9 (-105) $315 to win $300 We've got a rematch of last week's 6-4 Jays win up in Toronto when these two starters (Dickey, Buchholz) settled down after rocky starts. That game was tied 3-3 after an inning of play as both pitchers hung some bad pitches up there to get crushed. I don't think that will be the case tonight in the rematch as both teams are coming off emotionally draining series'. For Toronto, they were in Yankee Stadium and won a series there for the first time in over two years. After dropping the opener on Friday, the Jays were on an 0-17 SU run in the Bronx until they broke through with a W on Saturday. It's quite a high at this point in the year for this team to finally get over that hurdle and you've got to wonder if they'll have much left for tonight. Boston was in Tampa taking on the Rays in a series that finished with some more questionable showmanship and players losing their cool. It's always interesting to see how teams [...]

Tough 1-2 day with my plays yesterday as my teams against those dominant lefties Sale and Kershaw didn't even score a run. Hamilton came through for me later though to salvage what I could, but I've already moved on to a couple of later games today. All lines taken from Pinnacle Sports with bet amounts 'to win' on favorites and flat on underdogs Play of the Day in Bold MLB Pre-All Star Break: 101-107-13 (+$691) MLB Post-All Star Break: 11-7 (+$1528) CFL YTD: 4-3 (+$588) MLB plays San Diego Padres ML (+156) $200 to win $312 Similar situation to Friday's opener in this series as I'm taking the team no one wants in a spot where they are a .500 team. After Friday's win against lefty Alex Wood, San Diego is now 11-11 SU against southpaw starters this season. Mike Minor has been far from good for the Braves of late with a 7.88 ERA over his last three and another short outing might not be that far away. Oakland/Texas Over 9 (-108) $324 to win $300 Was burned with the 'over' in this game yesterday as part of our premium package, but am going back with it tonight in the rare late evening start in Texas. Miles Mikolas has been terrible in his four starts for the Rangers this season, sporting a 7.48 ERA and watching an average of 6.2 runs score against him. He's not quite ready for the big stage but thanks to all the injuries he's been brought up to the rotation. He hasn't faced Oakland yet this year and the patient A's will wait for him to groove one. The A's are 11-3 O/U the last 11 times they've been laying [...]

I went 2-1 with my free selections last night but it was my top play on Toronto that was the loser. Thankfully the Padres came in as a big dog for me to basically split my MLB plays (-$4) and Winnipeg rolled as the BC Lions definitely looked flat and got caught in a sandwich game. A profitable night is a profitable night though and I'm looking to keep it rolling for you today. All lines taken from Pinnacle Sports with bet amounts 'to win' on favorites and flat on underdogs Play of the day in Bold MLB pre-All Star Break: 101-107-13 (+$691) MLB post-All Star Break: 11-5 (+$1928) CFL YTD: 3-3 (+$288) MLB plays Minnesota Twins ML (+164) $200 to win $328 San Francisco ML (+176) $200 to win $352 I'm grouping these two plays together as I believe there is some great value in going against two of the best left-handed pitchers in the game. Chris Sale and Clayton Kershaw have been lights out for their respective teams this season and will always garner a lot of public action ( 91% and 83% as I write this) but you know I've got no problem going against the majority with my plays. For Sale and the White Sox, they've taken the first two games of this four-game set with the Twins. They face a rookie lefty in Logan Darnell tonight and I like to back pitchers in their first career start. For one, nobody on the Sox has ever faced Darnell and the coaching staff doesn't have extensive research on him and that always favors the pitcher. Chicago is already a team that doesn't hit lefties as well as they do righties and if [...]

It was a sweep with my two underdog selections yesterday (Miami and Detroit) and if you had waited on them and played them closer to game time you would have gotten a better price than I did at +115 and +104 respectively. I posted (and bet) those plays at 3 pm est to get you guys the plays early and we will never post lines here that aren't current at the time of post just to suit needs of posting whatever number looks best for the play. It's on to tonight's full MLB card though and with it being Friday I've got another CFL play for you all. All lines taken from Pinnacle Sports with bet amounts 'to win' on favorites and flat on underdogs Play of the Day in Bold MLB pre-All Star Break: 101-107-13 (+$691) MLB Post-All Star Break: 10-4 (+$1932) CFL YTD: 2-3: (+$88) MLB plays San Diego ML (+148) $200 to win $296 The Padres have a 45-56 SU record this year and are well on their way to missing the playoffs yet again. But despite being 11 games below the .500 mark and having a .197 team batting average against lefties, San Diego is basically a .500 team against southpaws (10-11 SU). San Diego slugged around lefty Tsuyoshi Wada on Wednesday and those hot bats continued to knock the ball around in a 13-3 victory (against a righty) last night. Since San Diego has already become a big 'seller' as the deadline approaches, guys are playing for jobs and for opportunities, so getting them at this kind of price against a lefty is a spot I don't think I can pass up. Toronto ML (+126) $300 to win $378 Toronto has [...]