Matinée Moneymaker

Wednesday is 'get away day' for many Major League Baseball teams, and in the case of the Pittsburgh Pirates, they may be ready to get out of the desert just as soon as possible.

The Pirates will be looking for a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday afternoon, but facing lefty Wade Miley may be more than they can handle.

Miley was solid in his first outing of the young 2013 campaign last week in Milwaukee, going six strong innings while surrendering just one run in Arizona's 3-1 win over the Brewers. Based on the Pirates' woes against lefties in the recent past, he could be in for another strong performance. 

Last season, Pittsburgh was among the National League's worst against lefties, hitting a collective .242, which ranked them 12th in the league. They also struggled in the power department against southpaws, cranking just 36 homers. Only the Chicago Cubs had fewer. 

Here are a couple of other bad news bits about Pittsburgh versus lefties, as seen on the Bovada data tool on our Home page.  Today's starter, Jonathan Sanchez, hasn't gone longer than five innings in any of his last three outings. That does not bode well for a Pirate bullpen that had to serve over six innings last night.  Also, the Pirates' 11 runs in the two games so far brings their season scoring average up to a paltry 2.6 runs per game.  Hardly the numbers that Pirate backers would want to see, especially when facing one of the better young lefties in the game today.

Taking the Diamondbacks will require nearly double the risk to get the reward, with Bovada's number in at -197 around 1.00pm edt.  If you have the option of a run line, you can get better value at -1.5, and I even think that wouldn't be a bad play.  But I still think the money line, while risking plenty, is a very safe bet.

My play:  Take the Diamondbacks   -197

UPDATE:

Result ... Arizona 10 Pittsburgh 2     Diamondbacks cover