Dickey needs strike outs

For the first time since May, R.A. Dickey is an underdog in today's matchup, going off at +130 on the Vegas line. No matter the talent level of the team he was facing or the skill of the Mets you always had to pay for a Dickey start. Get your bets in now, this is a good value.

More important than money however is the ongoing quest for Dickey to win the triple crown which is now his to lose. Looking at the numbers of the top NL pitchers, he is the only hurler who can win it at this point. See the below table.

	Wins	ERA	K
Dickey	17	2.63	190
Cueto	17	2.58	149
Strasburg	15	2.94	195
Gonzalez	17	3.1	176
Kershaw	12	2.79	201

Dickey is currently first in wins, second in ERA and third in K's. No one else is close enough in all three categories at this point to make a serious run at the title. Right now the serious concern is K's. Dickey is 11 behind the leader which is a fairly substantial number. Dickey's last three starts have been on the lower end for him this year punching out only 6,2,7 respectively compared to his three before that where he K'ed 9,10 and 9. In order for Dickey to pull this off we will need at least 2 more 10+ games and pretty good K performances in all the rest. With luck Strasburg will get shut down soon which would take him out of the equation. We can't expect such luck from Kershaw whose Dodgers are locked in a close playoff race and will be expecting big things from him. Today at 1:45 Dickey gets one step closer.