Courtesy of Brent Crow and the Sportsmemo Newsletter
Texas (Harden) at Milwaukee (Narveson)
BEST BET: #972 Over 9.5
With Rich Harden on the mound for the Rangers, the Brew Crew should have little trouble putting up some runs. I have played against Harden for most of the season and he continues to struggle with a 5.34 ERA and a league leading 43 walks allowed in just 64 innings. Instead of playing against Texas here, however, we will go over the total as Milwaukee starter Chris Narveson is also struggling and the Brewers’ bullpen is obviously not very good. Narveson has made eight starts and 17 appearances and owns a 5.83 ERA overall. He has just two quality efforts on the year and has allowed 13 runs in 17.2 innings over his last three starts. Harden has also been struggling, with no quality starts since a May 3rd win at Oakland. The Texas offense has been hot lately, scoring at least five runs in five of its last six games entering the week. They will lose the DH at the National League park but I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a place for Vlad Guerrero (.444 vs. lefties) in the lineup, which will bolster the offense and weaken the defense. Milwaukee home games are 14-8-2 to the over on the year and we should add to that trend on Friday.
