MLB Baseball Betting: St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds
The St. Louis Cardinals will be glad to be done with the Cincinnati Reds after Sunday’s series finale. The Reds have won the first two games of the weekend series and can complete the sweep with a victory here. The Reds haven’t been in particularly good form of late losing 8 of 12 but they’ve now won 2 straight. The Cardinals have been ‘treading water’ at best lost 7 of their last 12. They’ve got no chance of catching the NL Central leading Chicago Cubs whom they trail by 16.5 games but they’ve still got the wildcard to play for. Right now they’re in the final NL Wildcard spot 2.5 games back of the San Francisco Giants in the top wildcard spot. The problem is that there’s 4 teams within 5 games behind them–the NY Mets (1.5 games back), Pittsburgh Pirates (2 games back), Miami Marlins (3 games back) and Colorado Rockies (5 games back). To the extent that the Reds still have a goal they’d probably like to avoid finishing in last place in the NL Central. Pending the outcome of Saturday’s action they trail Milwaukee by 1 game.
The Cardinals will start right hander Carlos Martinex who has been solid all season and exceptional in his most recent starts. Overall, Martinez has a 3.07 ERA with a 1.168 WHIP and a 2.30 road ERA with a 1.136 WHIP. He’s got a 1.29 ERA with a 0.810 WHIP and is coming off one of his best starts of the season–though to be fair all of his recent starts have been good. He’s allowed just 11 hits in his last three starts–all Cardinals’ wins. He’ll be opposed by Reds’ right hander Tim Adelman who will be making his 8th start of the season. He’s been decent with a 3.82 ERA overall and a 3.44 home ERA. The Reds have gone 3-4 in his previous 7 starts including 2-2 at home.
This has been a very competitive season historically on the Reds’ home field. Actually, the series overall has been very competitive this year which is surprising given the disparity in the team’s performances year to date. The teams have split 14 games overall with the Reds winning 5 of 3 at the Great American Ballpark for a profit of 3.7 units. We’ll give them a shot here.
BET CINCINNATI REDS +150 OVER ST. LOUIS CARDINALS
