Free Pick | MLB | Monday | Aug. 14

Nelly’s is 28-21 since the All-Star break while on a 16-6 interleague run even with yesterday’s tough 7* miss, our first loss in our last five 7* selections.

Check out an Interleague pick to get back on track Monday with Nelly’s posting profits in five of the past six MLB weeks!

Nelly’s Green Sheet Newsletter is 11-6 so far in our preseason selections – issue #5 will be out Wednesday night.

#901 Pittsburgh Pirates (Priester) +120 over New York Mets (Carrasco) 6:10 PM CT

Pittsburgh has been on a 12-11 run since July 19 for decent results, including scoring four or more runs in eight of the past 10 games. The Pirates split a double-header on Sunday while the Mets lost both games of a double-header on Saturday before avoiding a four-game home sweep with a narrow win Sunday night against Atlanta. New York pitching allowed 30 runs in the four games the past three days and the Mets have had terrible bullpen results lately including a 9.33 ERA in the past 10 games. Carlos Carrasco has struggled this season with a 6.42 ERA and with one of the lowest K/9 rates of his career at 6.3, compared to his career average of 9.2 Carrasco has allowed 16 home runs in 17 starts and owns a 10.18 ERA since the All-Star break as the 36-year-old seems to be approaching the end of his MLB career. Rookie Quinn Priester gets the call for the Pirates in his sixth MLB start. Priester has an 8.75 ERA in the small sample, but the upside potential is there for the former 1st round pick. With some understandable nerves, Priester allowed seven runs in his MLB debut but has posted more respectable numbers since and his high walk rate comes almost exclusively from one start. Priester has a .338 BABAIP and just a 59 percent strand rate in the small sample to start his career and those numbers should improve. He has also faced playoff contenders in all five starts, something that won’t be the case Monday. The Mets and Pirates have identical records entering this series, but New York is 3-10 in August while outscored by 46 runs for a terrible stretch of play since trading away some of the big names on the roster in late July. The Mets had to use five pitchers yesterday while coming off a double-header Saturday as the options will not be ideal for New York in a tough turnaround for Monday’s game.