MLB betting<\/a> principle you can take to the bank is that the laws of averages even out over the course of a season.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s a mistake to think that the results of any April series \u2013 let alone one game \u2013 should determine the trajectory of a team\u2019s six-month journey to October.<\/p>\n
In the first series of the season, the Pirates took two out of three games from the Dodgers in Pittsburgh. If that series had been used as a metric for the rest of the month of April, the Pirates should be playing .667 ball right now. If their early wins over the Dodgers are to be viewed as a standard by which the rest of the season should be judged, the Bucs ought to be joining the St. Louis Cardinals atop the National League Central.<\/p>\n
Clearly, that\u2019s not the case, as the Pirates and manager John Russell enter Thursday night\u2019s game with an 8-12 record, pending the outcome of a Wednesday night game that was played after this article was written.<\/p>\n
The 2010 outlook has already become quite dark and gloomy for Pittsburgh. The Bucs lost seven straight contests before snapping their skid on Tuesday in Milwaukee against the Brewers. To put Pittsburgh\u2019s slide into perspective, Russell\u2019s low-paid roster lost four games to Milwaukee by an aggregate score of 53-4 before pulling out a close-shave win against the Brew Crew.