**Boston -138 over BALTIMORE (4:35 Eastern)

Baltimore has lost seven of eight and goes from the Yankees to the Red Sox. They are hating life. As was the case with New York, Boston needs to win. They are 1.5 games back in the wild card race. They put Matt Clement on the mound who is 4-0 against Baltimore in his career. His counterpart, Erik Bedard is 1-2 vs. Boston with a 9.60 ERA. He's also 1-11 in the second half of the season - getting little run support, and 2-9 overall this season vs. winning teams. But, pitching is just one piece of the puzzle here - and not the most important. Boston has a HUGE offensive advantage, as they do over most teams. Baltimore is scoring 4.0 runs per game at home this season and 4.0 overall over their last seven. Boston puts up 5.3 per game on the road and they've scored 5.7 over their last seven. Two stars on Boston.

*CHICAGO SOX -228 over Minnesota (7:05 Eastern)

Chicago, losers of 10 of their last 15, know that they are in big big trouble if they don't win. They've sorta known this for a while but the reality of their collapse keeping them out of the playoffs is becoming more palpable every day. They turn to Freddy Garcia to get the win at home. Minnesota looks to Joe Mays, a pitcher they recently demoted to the bullpen. Both pitchers have struggled of late but Mays is worse. He's 1-10 this year vs. winning teams! And, the White Sox are 22-6 this year vs. pitchers who strike out 3 or less batters per start. Home favorites of -200 or more scoring <=4.7 runs/game on the season are 96-20 (83%) since 1997. And, road underdogs of +175 to +250 that allow 4.7 or less runs/game facing an opponent poor that scores <4.7 runs/game are 7-48 (13%) since 1997. Take the Sox for one star.