July 18 - Good starting pitching wins games.

It is a beautiful sunny Saturday here in New York. I was at the Yankees/Tigers game last night that had to go into a rain delay in the bottom of the 8th with the Yankees up 5-3, do to a severe thunderstorm. I waited a while but when the rain looked like it would never let up, I got out of there with 45,000 other fans. As I got home about an hour and a half later I put on the TV to see that they actually never called the game and Mariano Rivera had to come in to shut the Tigers down in the 9th. I am surprised they waited it out but those fans who stayed behind at least got to move up to the front rows to see future Hall of Famer Rivera get yet another save.

Tonight we will move to the central US in hopes of a game with no rain.

Seattle Mariners @ Cleveland Indians

I think we are getting some real favorable odds here today as a last place team hosts a starting pitcher having a great year. The awful Indians are 36-55 on the season and have not been showing any signs of life even with Grady Sizemore coming back off the DL. They have dropped 19 of their last 26 games since mid-June while posting a 6.01 staff ERA in those games.

Tonight the tribe trots out Tomo Ohka (0-3, 6.40) who will again look for his first win since April 29, 2007. The right-hander was out of the majors last season and has been mostly ineffective this year. Ohka is 0-2 with a 5.73 ERA in two starts against Seattle and hasn't faced them since 2001 while playing with Boston. he is another of those Japanese pitchers that looks pretty good for his first season but then proves to be pretty bad once teams have a scouting report on him. He allowed five runs in 3 2-3 innings of a 10-1 defeat to Detroit on Sunday.

Pitching for Seattle tonight on the other hand is comeback player Jarrod Washburn. Washburn (6-6, 2.96 ERA) lost at least 14 games in each of his first three years in Seattle, but he developed a new sinker coming into this season and has compiled the AL's fifth-best ERA at the All-Star break. He's been especially effective lately. After pitching a one-hit shutout against Baltimore on July 6, he allowed one run and four hits in seven innings of last Saturday's 4-1 win over Texas. He is in a contract year and is proving that he wants to be a high value free agent this off-season.

Some Pure Profets trends for you:

- Mariners are 5-0 in their last 5 games as a road favorite.

-Mariners are 12-4 in their last 16 when their opponent allows 5 runs or more in their previous game.

-Indians are 1-7 in their last 8 during game 3 of a series.
-Indians are 0-4 in Ohkas last 4 starts.

-Mariners are 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.

Starting pitching is a key element in baseball handicapping and profitable bettors will always ride the better pitcher in a game especially when the odds are not too heavy against him. We will jump on this train tonight and rely on Washburn to get us another victory.

PURE PROFETS PLAY OF THE DAY IS:

SEATTLE MARINERS -115

*for more info and picks email us at PureProfets@gmail.com