MLB Baseball Betting: San Francisco Giants at Chicago Cubs

The first full day of September baseball goes on Friday and the top game on the board is a matchup between the slumping San Francisco Giants and the red hot Chicago Cubs. The Cubs hit a ‘rough patch’ around the All Star Break but they’ve recovered from it and then some. They’ve won 7 of 10 (pending Thursday’s opening game of this series) and now lead the second place St. Louis Cardinals by 15 games in the NL Central race. Third place Pittsburgh is 17.5 games back and the only divisional concern for Chicago right now is whether or not they should put it on ‘cruise control’ until the postseason. They’ve got the best record in the National League by a sizable margin and have five more wins and 7 fewer losses than the team with the second best record in baseball (Texas at 80-54).

Chicago is dominating right now but the San Francisco Giants are still a dangerous adversary. To say they haven’t played well in the second half is an understatement but they’re not in bad shape considering. They trail the NL West leading Los Angeles Dodgers by 1.5 games and have the top wildcard spot in the National League leading the second wild card team (St. Louis) by 2 games and the third place team in the wildcard standings (the New York Mets) by 3.5 games. Despite their struggles they still have the 4th best team ERA in baseball (3.72) trailing only the Mets, Nationals and Cubs. They also have a top ten team batting average (.261).

Today’s pitching battle, however, is a mismatch. Matt Cain has struggled all season and is coming off of two dismal starts. He was originally listed as the San Francisco starter on Friday but instead Albert Suarez will get the ball for his 8th start of the season. Regardless, Cubs starter Jon Lester is just in absolutely sick form right now. He’s been good all year with a 2.70 ERA and the Cubs have won 19 of his 26 starts. At home, he’s put up a 2.01 ERA and the Cubs are 10-2 when he takes the ball. In his last three starts he’s gone 18 2/3 innings allowing a total of 11 hits, 2 earned runs while striking out 21 against 6 walks. The Cubs let him down in his last start losing 1-0 to Los Angeles despite a 6 inning 3 hit 0 ER performance by Lester. They won’t let him down here. No line on the game currently but the Cubs are the play.

BET CHICAGO CUBS OVER SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS