NL Baseball Preview: St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t exactly come into this series against the St. Louis Cardinals in good form having dropped two of three games last weekend against the Florida Marlins. They’ve shaken that off nicely, however, and have shocked the Cards winning three of the first five games. In the process they’ve improved to 64-42 to not only take over first place in the NL Central but now have the best record in baseball. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have now lost six straight games and are desperate to get back on the winning track.
Pittsburgh will start their talented young lefthander Jeff Locke in this game and he’s been a welcome addition to an already solid pitching staff. Locke has a 2.14 ERA overall, a 2.56 ERA at home and a 2.29 ERA in his last three games. The Pirates have won 11 of his 20 starts this year and 6 of his 9 home assignments. That’s bad news for a St. Louis team that hasn’t done particularly well against left handed pitching this season. Cards are 11-14 -8.4 units against southpaws and didn’t have much success against lefthander Francisco Liriano earlier in this series. The Cardinals will send righthander Adam Wainwright to the hill and he’s been a dependable workhorse for the team this season. Wainwright has a 2.51 ERA, a 3.00 ERA on the road and St. Louis has won when he starts-the Cards have won 15 of his 22 starts overall and 10 of his 13 starts on the road. He’ll be facing a Pittsburgh team that has bludgeoned right handed pitching this year going 53-32 +26.5 units in those games. The Pirates have also gone 35-18 +14.5 units at home.
There’s been something of a conventional wisdom that this Pirates’ team will go into the tank at some point-they’ve done this for the past two seasons-and remain somewhat undervalued from a betting perspective. But with July giving way to August it’s starting to look like this team is for real. We’ll take the red hot Pirates at an underdog price against the slumping Cardinals. Locke has pitched like a future superstar this season and could shut down a St. Louis team that has underachieved against lefthanders.
BET PITTSBURGH PIRATES (LOCKE) +110 OVER ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (WAINWRIGHT)