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With one eye on the all star match up on Tuesday night, the players in the majors will be out in force tonight to strike a blow before normal matches resume on Thursday. It seems like there are several opportunities tonight so I have picked out three matches that I particularly want you to take a closer look at.

New York Yankees (Pettite 10-6, 3.93) @ Toronto Blue Jays (Burnett 9-8, 5.23)

Since the return of A-Rod and Jorge Posada, the Yankees seem to have gone from strength to strength and are now well and truly back in the hunt for the AL East crown. The Blue Jays (although only four games back) by contrast have never really looked like a team capable of battling for higher honours as they have too many passengers in their hitting unit and are probably a quality pitcher light.

Andy Pettite is a veteran of the game but is having a very good season. He hasn't always got the run support he requires but continues to pitch solidly and in the absence of Chien-Ming Wang, he is the Yankees number one in the pitching rotation.

An impressive offensive performance overpowered the Blue Jays last night and that is a level that the Yankees have the capability of replicating with regularity, so therefore a good pitching performance tonight from Pettite should give them the platform to see off an inferior side.

RECOMMENDATION - 5 pts on NY Yankees @ 1.84 (Canbet)

Chicago White Sox (Contreras 7-6, 4.21)@ Texas Rangers ( Harrison 1-0, 2.57)

Mike Harrison may have had an impressive start to his pitching career in the majors but this isn't to be read into too deeply, on that night (8th July) he pitched against an Angel's unit that had a very bad evening at the office and couldn't seem to get into any sort of rhythm.

Tonight should present a different challenge for Harrison as he is up against a team in the White Sox that are under much more pressure to get wins with the Twins breathing down their necks for the AL Central top spot. The White Sox have a really impressive hitting unit and will have a pretty solid pitcher in Cuban starter Jose Contreras taking to the mound.

In the small Arlington ball park this White Sox unit could easily hit double figures against any side so Harrison would need to have a pretty special night again, and on just his second start this may be asking too much.

RECOMMENDATION - 4 Pts on Chicago WS @ 1.98 (Bet365)

Colorado Rockies (Redman 2-4, 7.07) @ New York Mets (Pelfrey 7-6, 3.93)

The Mets seem to be winning all of the time at the moment; in fact they are on an eight match winning streak. The streak has caused a silly shift in pricing and the 1.53 on offer with some bookies for this fixture is a quite laughable lack of value and respect for the Rockies .

Mark Redman has pretty poor figures this season, make no bones about that but there is reasoning for that. Redman has been passed between the majors and triple A too often which is clearly going to make you feel a little unsettled, but now he is making a second consecutive start so with all his experience he should be capable of pitching solidly.

The biggest factor in the recent Mets success has been the quality of pitching. For all of the potential the gigantic Mike Pelfrey has, he has still yet to learn any real consistency and this will always lead to a pretty even split between wins and losses.

The Mets have not really been blasting teams away with masses of runs so as a general formula, if you pitch well against them and their pitcher isn't on his mettle, you will usually win the game.

I expect you to latch onto the 2.5 available with Bet365.

RECOMMENDATION - 1.5 Pts on Colorado Rockies @ 2.5 (Bet365)

OVERALL RECOMMENDATION - 1 pts on Yankees / White Sox double

Thanks for reading and good luck.

Crafty Stan