Baltimore Orioles vs. Detroit Tigers Betting Odds & Picks: May 28th 2009

Detroit Tigers vs. Baltimore Orioles o10.0 (-115) - Thu May 28 ‘09 7:05p
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Detroit will trot RHP Armando Galarraga to the hill on Thursday night. Following a breakout season in ‘08 which saw the righty go 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA, he has come back to earth a bit in his nine starts this season. Galarraga is just 3-4, and hasn’t really figured out his stuff yet on the season. Opposing batters are hitting .271 against him, and he is allowing a bit too much contact to be successful at this level (6.70 K/9). His L/5 starts have been absolutely embarrassing, as he has a 9.93 ERA in those outings, which has seen his ERA over triple from April to May. Galarraga has only made one career start against the Orioles, and that day he allowed five runs (four earned) over 6.2 innings and suffered the loss.

RHP David Hernandez will be taking the mound for his first career start for the Orioles on Thursday. The righty is completely an unknown commodity at the MLB level, but was having a fantastic start to the season in AAA Norfolk. There, Hernandez was 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, and a solid 4.65 K/BB ratio. Scouts know that he has a ton of movement on his pitches and usually has pinpoint control, but may not quite have the gas to get the ball up there past MLB batters. His whopping 12.46 K/9 in Norfolk suggests that his stuff is at least good enough in AAA, but there’s a big question as to how well his stuff will translate to the big leagues. Don’t expect to see Hernandez last too long in this game, as he has been limited to an average of just over 5.1 innings pitched per start in the minors. That’s bad news for a bullpen that has a 4.57 ERA for the season.

It’s hard to like either team’s pitching match-ups in this game. Hernandez is a complete unknown, while Galarraga has been a gas can the entire month of May. The Tigers have scored at least four runs in 11 of their L/14 and is coming off of a three-game set in Kansas City where they scored 22 runs. Baltimore just swept Toronto, and did so by scoring a whopping 25 runs. Expect more runs this evening.