Friday **93.9% Inter-League Game of the Month** - 5/18/2007 7:10:00 PM

New York Mets (Perez) -101

It truly is amazing at times the sort of backing the Yankees receive from the linesmakers despite having a terrible year thus far. New York is stuck at three games under .500 including four games under .500 on the road while the Mets are red hot, 12 games over .500 and still only extremely small favorites. The Mets ninth inning victory over the Cubs yesterday provided even more of a boost heading into this always entertaining rivalry. The Mets simply are extremely undervalued in this spot.

Taking nothing away from Andy Pettitte as he has been pitching extremely well of late but facing Texas twice and Seattle is nothing compared to the Mets. They are hitting .340 against left-handed pitching this season including .335 at home while going 8-3 on the year against lefty starters. Pettitte has had great success against the Mets throughout his career but he has not pitched against them in two years and this is obviously a completely different team.

Oliver Perez has been a huge part of the Mets rotation and he is showing things that were expected of him in previous years. One look at his 43/14 K/BB ratio shows that things have turned around. After striking out 239 in 196 innings with a 2.98 ERA in 2004 with the Pirates, Perez looked lost the last two seasons, walking nearly six batters per nine innings with an ERA well above 6.00. This year he has a solid 3.00 ERA and has not issued a walk in three of his seven starts.

The Yankees have been average against left-handed starters, hitting .268 on the season but they have struggled of late, hitting just .235 over their last 10 games. This is not a particularly good spot for Pettitte as he has some ugly angles. He is 1-14 against teams outscoring opponents by one or more rpg on the season over the last two seasons (Mets are +1.5 rpg). He is also 1-11 after giving up two or fewer earned runs in his last two outings. Meanwhile Perez is 6-0 in home games against AL teams averaging 5.2 or more rpg on the season. Play New York Mets 2.5 Units

• MASTERBETS NBA TOP PICK OF THE MONTH!


• SCOTT SPREITZER'S NBA ABSOLUTE CRUSHER OF THE MONTH!


• Big Al's 3-game Major League Baseball Package.


• Fargo's Friday 2-Unit NCAA Easy Blowout Winner!


• Ben Burns' 3-Game EXEC Report **SPECIAL** (EARLY)


• PARSONS DOMINATING MLB TOTAL OF THE WEEK *3-0 SWEEP!


• Tom Stryker's 31-16 ATS NFL High Roller Payday


• Ben Burns' #1 National League Total of the Week!