Free Picks

At 7:05 pm, our complimentary selection is on the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals ‘UNDER’ the total. For 2 more Free Winners, go to http://www.bigal.com/free every day. There’s good news and bad news for the Phillies. The good news is that Charlie Manuel asked for pitching help and the front office came through with the acquisition of veteran righthander Roy Oswalt from the Astros, and Oswalt will be beginning his Phillies career tonight in Washington to hopefully add to the red-hot Phillies streak. The bad news is that the team has just had to place outfielder and offensive catalyst Shane Victorino on the disabled list with a left oblique muscle injury. Victorino was on his way to his best Major League season ever and although the injury gives the Phils a chance to promote and play one of the game’s top prospects in 22-year-old Domonic Brown (who went 2 for 3 in his MLB debut), there is no doubt that they would rather have Victorino in there. Ignore Oswalt’s 6-12 record and the fact that he leads the league in losses and take a look at his solid 3.42 ERA and 1.11 WHIP and 120 strikeouts in 129 innings. Oswalt gets to wipe his ledger clean with his first start in a Phillies uniform tonight against a team which they have dominated over the past two seasons. Heading into Today’s games, Washington had scored three or less runs in four of its last five games. Take the ‘under.’ As always, good luck…Al McMordie.