Will it be 20 Straight Quality Starts? Play the Under
Honestly, sometimes all you can do is laugh. We were well on our way to a 3-0 night - seriously. We had a lead in every game, we had it all under control. The White Sox scored a bunch of runs in a situation they shouldn't have been in, we pushed in that game. Then, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks lost their games in their opponent's last at-bat after going into the final three outs with the lead.
We are going to go back to the matchup we got our push in last night. We are going to take the guy that has 19 consecutive quality starts. I love the reliability of Framber Valdez. He's, as you'd expect, having a great campaign, but it isn't as if he is untouchable. Even with the quality starts, he has allowed three earned runs in three of the past four games. He is allowing runs, but the Astros are winning by a margin almost every time he starts. And, many times the opponent are staying at three or less runs because he goes at least six innings then turns the game over to a capable bullpen to manage three innings.
On the other side of this game is Michael Kopech. He's been very strong for the White Sox, despite a tough June, he has responded. I expected him to slightly fall off the cliff because he hasn't really racked up the innings so I thought he might be getting a tired arm, but that doesn't seem to be the case at this point. In August he is putting together a nice stretch of 16.1 innings and six earned runs. He had one bad start against the Tigers, but the other two starts were quality starts. He faced the Astros once this year and allowed four earned in five innings. However, Kopech is better at home so he might be able to limit the damage more effectively.
Take the under 8 at -114 today.
