Baseball Tonight 7-30-06

Cuz football starts soon and you need to get into Sunday morning game shape.

• Baltimore Orioles (47-58 4th AL East Bruce Chen 0-6 7.09) vs. Chicago White Sox (61-41 2nd AL Central Javier Vazquez 9-6 5.31)-After a game-winning Ross Gload grand slam on Friday night, and outslugging the Orioles 13-11 yesterday, the White Sox are back in the AL Wild Card lead. Today they look to complete the series sweep against a guy who hasn't won yet this season, Bruce Chen. These games are must-wins for the Sox, cuz after their next series against the Royals, it's back to the Yankees, Tigers and Twins. The Sox get it done today. (TV-Local 1:35PM Est.)
• Minnesota Twins (59-43 3rd AL Central Johan Santana 12-5 3.04) vs. Detroit Tigers (70-33 1st AL Central Jeremy Bonderman 11-4 3.66)-I told you the Tigers would win this series. The Twins look to salvage at least one game in this series, and they send Johan Santana out there to do it. The Tigers though will counter with Jeremy Bonderman, making this game the day's best pitching matchup. Bonderman has won his last 7, and the Tigers are 9-2 against the Twins this year. I'm going with Detroit. (TV-Local 2:10PM Est.)
• Chicago Cubs (42-61 5th NL Central Carlos Zambrano 11-3 3.27) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (58-45 1st NL Central Chris Carpenter 10-4 2.68)-If the Cubs played the Cardinals everyday they would be World Series bound. The Cubs are 9-3 against the Cardinals this season. Today they look to complete their first four-game sweep of the Cardinals at Wrigley Field since 1921. They have the right pitcher to do it too, Carlos Zambrano. He has won his last eight, but today runs into Chris Carpenter. Carpenter is 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his last six starts. The team that makes the least mistakes wins this one, and the Cubs haven't made many mistakes the last few days. That means they're due. I'm taking the Cardinals to avoid the sweep. (TV-WGN 2:20PM Est.)

Last Night: 1-2 (W-Phillies L-Twins, Rangers)

Season: 20-16

I'm struggling lately, I've gone 3-6 the last three days.

Also, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Bruce Sutter is on ESPN Classic today at 1:30PM EDT, if you'd rather watch that.