BEST LINE: Pinnacle under 7 -104

Posted at 9:40 AM EST

Does anyone remember just how good Cole Hamels can be? Hamels' rough start to 2013, captured by that first half high ERA set the narrative for the whole year. He got off to another difficult start this year but his skills tell a different story. In fact, Hamels’ skills remain remarkably consistent and elite and they are touching new highs right now. Over his last six starts covering 43 innings, Hamels has struck out 45 batters and posted an ERA of 2.11, which is right in line with his 2.39 xERA. His groundball/line-drive/fly-ball profile of 53%/18%/34% over that same stretch shows the difficulty batters are having hitting anything hard off him. In fact, Hamels’ groundball rate in his last start was 80%, as he absolutely breezed through 7.2 innings at Cincinnati. He’ll now face a Padres team that is seeing BB’s and that is dead last in the majors with a BA of .210 against southpaws.  

Then there’s Tyson Ross. His huge breakout is masked only by his poor team. Ross has found command of a beastly slider and has become one of the toughest starters to hit in the NL. Ross began his skills surge in the 2nd half of last season and has not slowed down in the slightest. He has 77 K’s in 81 innings, an elite 13% swing and miss rate and the highest groundball tilt in the major leagues at 61%. Over his last five starts, Ross has struck out 32 batters in 30 innings with a groundball/fly-ball split of 64%/20%. For this one to go over, one of these offenses has to go off because the other is very likely going to get a gem thrown against them.