Larry Ness

My 10* NL TOTAL OF THE WEEK is the under Dodgers/Pirates (7:05 EST).

A couple of competent hurlers go head-to-head in this one. 

Alex Wood (14-1, 2.30 ERA) gets the call for the White Sox and he most recently gave up one run off six hits while striking out six over seven innings in an unfortunate no-decision against the White Sox on Tuesday (zero walks.)

Wood was extremely effecient, needing just 79 pitches to get through the seven frames. To go along with his 2.30 ERA, Wood also owns an elite 1.01 WHIP, .206 BAA and 122/30 K/W over 117.1 innings of work. 

Note that he’s 6-0 with a 1.72 ERA on the road this year.

The home side counters with Gerrit Cole (10-8, 3.96) who gave up four runs off five hits over six innings in a no-decision against Milwaukee on Wednesday, walking two and striking out nine. 

Cole has been solid overall this year though and owns a respectable 3.97 ERA in front of the home town crowd thus far.

I like Wood to continue his strong play and I expect Cole to bounce back in front of the home town crowd. With these two starters battling into the latter frames, all signs do indeed point to the under as the correct call in this matchup.

Good luck…Larry

My 10* MNF NFLX TOTAL OF THE YEAR is on the over Giants/Browns (8:00 EST).

Both teams come in off lower-scoring unders in Week 1, with the Giants falling 20-12 at home to the Steelers and the Browns pulling away for a 20-14 victory over the Saints.

Suffice it to say, I look for each to open up the playbook offensively and I expect this one to eclipse the posted number as the game comes down the stretch.

New York knows who will be under center in Week 1, so it brought in Geno Smith to backup Eli Manning. Smith was 10 of 16 for 114 yards last week. The ground game produced 73 yards in Week 1. 

The Giants had a stellar defense last year (17.8 PPG conceded on average) and the unit will once again be a strength of the team this season.

The focus today for the visiting side though will clearly be on the offensive side of the ball.

And the home side will also be looking to solidy roles on the offensive side of the ball during the preseason. The Browns chose QB DeShone Kizer as their 2nd round pick and he had a good performance last week by going 11 of 18 for 184 yards and a TD. 

Brock Osweiller was just 6 of 14 for 42 yards and Cody Kessler was 5 of 10 for 47 yards. Clearly all three QB’s will be looking to build off their Week 1 performances as the competition continues to heat up under center. 

Cleveland finished in the very bottom in most offensive statistical categories last year and the team tried to address those issues in the offseason, adding 1st round pick TE David Njoku, as well as WR Kenny Britt and James Wright. 

But the Browns were also horrible defensively last year, ranked 31st in the league in yards allowed. Cleveland drafted Myles Garrett first overall and he along with Jabrill Peppers should be the catalyst to start returning the unit back to respectability. 

But with both teams putting more of a focus on the offensive side of the ball, I believe the correct call in this matchup is the over.

Good luck…Larry