June 6th, 2009 Picks

(skip recaps)Fuckin' ugly day, going 0-3-1 with Gonzalez teasing with a comeback only to drop 5 straight games to lose the match, Arkansas game being suspended so even though they won 9-2 eventually I got a push only, Kansas City falling hard for their 8th straight loss, and Ichiro Suzuki having zero success against Liriano.

Today's a little bare bones, but tomorrow will be meatier and with some projects finishing the picks will improve.

Recaps

Soderling Advances To His First Grand Slam Final Over Gonzalez In 5 Sets

6-3 7-5 5-7 4-6 6-4

``In the fourth set, the 28-year-old Gonzalez blew his top in the ninth game over a questionable line call. After a Soderling groundstroke fell close to the line with the Chilean serving, Gonzalez battled with both the chair umpire and the lineperson, indicating that the latter was pointing to the wrong mark. After losing the battle, he sat down on the clay and wiped out the mark with his backside, possibly an Open Era first. But instead of completely losing his cool, grew even more motivated Gonzalez managed to hold to 5-4 and then broke the Swede to win the set when Soderling hit a forehand wide."

Overall Soderling outplayed Gonzalez and you can see some evidence of that in their serve statistics, especially their second serve speed. Soderling was confident enough to remain aggressive on his while Gonzalez pulled back.
Read more....Serve Stats Box Score

Arkansas One Game Away From College World Series

Arkansas Razorbacks 9 - 2 Florida State Seminoles

Rather bogus turn of events here as anyone who picked Arkansas got a push rather than a win, with the rain delays forcing the game on into the evening.

``A patient Arkansas squad took the game's largest lead in the top of the seventh inning when it scored three runs on no hits. A leadoff walk to Andy Wilkins was followed by another walk and then a hit batter, loading the bases with no outs. Brett Eibner followed with another walk to bring in Wilkins and James McCann's sacrifice fly to deep right-center field scored Bigham. Arkansas' third came across on a finely executed safety squeeze by Collin Kuhn, making it a 5-2 game. The Hogs tacked on two additional runs in the eighth to make it a 7-2 game capitalizing this time on three Florida State errors."

Read more....Box Score

Greinke Gets Bombed, Gives Up 6 Earned Runs In First 3 Innings

Toronto Blue Jays 9 - 3 Kansas City Royals

Greinke's streak of innings without a home run came to a crashing halt today.

``Seeking to join Toronto's Roy Halladay as the only nine-game winners in baseball, Greinke (8-2) was instead tagged for a season high seven runs -- five earned -- and nine hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out three. The right-hander dropped to 1-4 with a 7.07 ERA in his career at Rogers Centre. ``He wasn't as sharp to both sides of the plate," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. ``Specifically today, he needed to pitch inside a little bit more. He tried to get in there a couple of times and left it out over the plate.""

Read more....Box Score

Ichiro's Hit Streak Ends At 27 Games, Mariners Lose In Extra Innings

Minnesota Twins 2 - 1 Seattle Mariners (in 10)

Ichiro's hitting streak also come to a halt today.

``Pinch-hitter Ken Griffey Jr. fouled out against Twins closer Joe Nathan before Suzuki -- with the crowd of 35,808 of chanting, pleading "Eee-chee-ro!" -- struck out for the final out, ending his team-record hitting streak. Francisco Liriano pitched six strong innings to perhaps save his place in the rotation and help the Twins win for the fourth time in five games. Matt Gurrier (2-0) allowed one hit in 1 2-3 innings, and Nathan finished for his 11th save in 13 chances."

Read more....Box Score

Picks
1) Geoff Ogilvy vs. Stuart Appleby - Appleby cards a lower front 9 score
2) Dinara Safina vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova - 3 sets played
3) Wales @ Azerbaijan - Azerbaijan win or draw
4) Tiger Woods' 3rd Round Score - 69 or lower
5) Virginia @ Ole Miss - Ole Miss
6) East Carolina @ North Carolina - East Carolina
7) Tampa Bay Rays @ New York Yankees - New York
8) Minnesota Twins @ Seattle Mariners - Seattle
9) Philadelphia Phillies @ Los Angeles Dodgers - Los Angeles
10) Where Will `Mine That Bird' Finish: 1^st or 2^nd vs. 3^rd or worse - 3^rd or worse
11) Pittsburgh Pirates @ Houston Astros - Pittsburgh
12) Brad Keselowski vs. Jason Leffler - Keselowski has a better finishing position
13) Pittsburgh Penguins @ Detroit Red Wings - Detroit
14) Baltimore Orioles @ Oakland Athletics - Baltimore
15) Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Diego Padres - San Diego

Previews

Azerbaijan has yet to score a goal in 4 World Cup qualifiers.

3) For Azerbaijan this is essentially a match against an injury ravaged Wales side with both teams being all but eliminated from the World Cup. Wales will be missing Craig Bellamy, Simon Davies, James Collins, Gareth Bale, Rhys Williams, and Carl Robinson. This article from Setanta Sports puts a posistive spin on it for the Welsh pointing out their strong youth players. Azerbaijan has yet to score a goal in their 4 World Cup qualifying matches and failed to score at Millenium Stadium in Wales where they lost 1-0 from an 83' goal by Samuel Vokes after having a man sent off at 68'. It would be remarkable for Azerbaijan to hold Wales scoreless, but after doing so for 83', and a man down for part of that time, I think they are capable of it.