MLB Baseball Betting: St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets
This will actually be the second game of a doubleheader–yesterday’s game was a rainout. The pitching assignments are expected to stay the same but keep an eye on them. The New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals are trying to cut into the lead in their respective divisions. The Mets are 5 games back in the NL East with the Washington Nationals leading the way. They’re also 1/2 game back of the Miami Marlins for second place. The Cardinals are 7.5 games behind the enigmatic Chicago Cubs (who have now won 7 of 10) and 1 game ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This is an important series for both teams and no doubt neither are happy about Monday’s rainout.
The Cardinals will start lefthander Jaime Garcia. He’s personally been struggling this year with a disappointing ERA and WHIP. The Cards have won only 10 of his 19 games overall but they’ve taken 6 of his 8 road starts. Garcia’s YTD ERA is 3.98 with a 1.363 WHIP. His road ERA is actually worse–4.40 with a 1.574 WHIP but somehow the Cards have won when he takes the mound away from home. They’ve dropped two of his last three starts with Garcia putting up a 4.76 ERA and a 1.471 WHIP. He’ll be opposed by Bartolo Colon who had been having a solid year until his most recent starts. Overall, the Mets have won 12 of Colon’s 19 starts including 6 of 9 at home. They’ve also won two of his last three (more about that in a moment). Colon has a 3.52 ERA on the year with a 1.258 WHIP and a 3.54 ERA at home with a 1.303 WHIP. He’s been completely hit or miss in his last three starts though the Mets managed to scrap out a win in one of his bad starts. On July 15 he pitched a very solid game at Philadelphia allowing no earned runs and just 4 hits in 5 2/3 innings of work. On July 7 and July 20 he turned in a pair of stinkers–a total of 9 innings worked with 12 earned runs on 18 hits and 5 HR.
New York has turned a slight profit against lefthanders this year but Garcia has had no problem with them throughout his career (1.29 ERA against the Mets). New York’s stats against LHP aren’t any better than their usual meager offensive output while the Cards can hit RHP and should have no problem hitting Colon.
BET ST. LOUIS CARDINALS -110 OVER NEW YORK METS
