Home Sweet Home - MLB's best in their own park

Home field advantage in the majors has been as important as ever this season. Now that August baseball wagering is here and pretenders are being left behind the contenders, check out BetUS Sportsbook’s list of the hottest home teams in the bigs…

(Rank) (Team) (SU Road Record, $$$) (SU Road Record in L/5, $$$)

1: Washington Nationals (26-33, -$530) (5-0, +$628 in L/5) Give it up for the Nats, who are finally starting to show a pulse after four months of playing lethargic baseball. They swept a six-game home stand by taking three from Florida and three from Arizona. In all six games, they were underdogs. The bats were the most impressive part of that home stand, as the lineup produced an average of 7.33 runs per game and scored at least five runs in all six games. In fact, since getting swept by the Cubs to start the second half of the season, the Nationals have played nearly flawless baseball for MLB bettors at home. They’re 10-2 in that run and are clearly playing much better baseball now than they were under previous skipper, Manny Acta. At least the fans in our nation’s capitol have something to look forward to the rest of this summer.

2: New York Yankees (41-18, +$623) (4-1, +$255 in L/5) The Yankees have probably placed their stamp on the AL East by winning nine of their L/11 games, including four huge wins at home against the Red Sox through last weekend. Though the offense averaged a very respectable 5.71 runs per game on this most recent seven-game home stand, the stars of this 6-1 stand were the pitchers. They averaged allowing 3.00 runs per game in those seven games, while tossing a pair of shutouts in the process. From now through September 9th, things are going to get a heck of a lot more difficult for the Yanks as 17 of the next 26 games are all on the road, and the home games in the bunch are against the White Sox, Rangers, and Rays. Still, it’s hard to see New York blowing this lead.

3: Detroit Tigers (36-18, +$1,258) (4-1, +$220 in L/5) The Tigers have been slumping on the road of late, which is why the White Sox remain in striking distance of their AL Central lead. However, their recent run at home is why they’re still in first place. Detroit took advantage of a slumping Minnesota team and a lousy Baltimore team to win four of its L/5 at Comerica Park. If the Tigers needed a spark, they may have gotten it on Tuesday night when SP Rick Porcello plunked Boston’s Kevin Youkilis and started a bench-clearing brawl; Porcello was suspended five games by Major League Baseball. They’d better remain hot at home, because anything less than a 4-2 run in the six games on the horizon against the Royals and Mariners will be very disappointing.

And the rest…

4: Tampa Bay Rays (36-18, +$853) (4-1, +$140 in L/5)

5: Cleveland Indians (25-31, -$1,169) (3-2, +$139 in L/5)