MLB Baseball
2012-05-12 - Atlanta Braves at St Louis Cardinals
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Saturday 12 May 2012 - First Pitch 7:15pm ET
12:15am (British Standard Time)
Preview
It was the Atlanta Braves (20-13) that took game 1 of this series against the St Louis Cardinals (20-12) in a high-scoring game last night. Atlanta will look to join the LA Dodgers with the most wins in the National League tonight, but that is a goal that they will share with the Cardinals.
St Louis will send Adam Wainwright to the mound in the hope that he has gotten over his early season blips after he had missed the whole of their World Series winning season in 2011. Wainwright has a 2-3 record this season with a 5.61 ERA, but he has been much improved in his last couple of starts.
The pitcher is 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA from his last three starts after really struggling with his command in his first three starts of the new season. He allowed just 1 run over 7 innings pitched against the Houston Astros last time out as the St Louis Cardinals won 10-1.
Wainwright was actually drafted by the Atlanta Braves back in 2000 and he has enjoyed plenty of success against them since leaving. He has won his last 6 starts against them and has a 2.48 ERA in those games, although he hasn't seen them since September 2010.
St Louis will be hoping Wainwright is at his best as Atlanta are countering with Brandon Beachy who has been enjoying a solid campaign in 2012 already. Beachy is 3-1 with a 1.62 ERA this season and he has not allowed more than 2 runs in any of his last five starts.
In his last outing, Beachy allowed just 2 runs in over 6 innings pitched as the Atlanta Braves pulled a 7-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.
The pitcher has only faced St Louis once before, in April 2011, and he allowed 2 runs in over 7 innings pitched, but did not factor into the decision.
Head to Head
St Louis had won 6 of their previous 7 games against Atlanta before losing game 1 last night in their first meeting of the 2012 season.
The Cardinals had also won 7 in a row at home against the Braves before that loss last night.
St Louis are 8-5 at home, Atlanta are 12-8 on the road.
Prediction
I am going to take a leap of faith here and back the St Louis Cardinals to square this series by a couple of runs at least.
The two pitchers are closely matched, but the Cardinals have definitely been a little more consistent at the plate and their bats are a little more trustworthy.
Atlanta may have exploded for 9 runs yesterday, but they had totalled just 4 in their previous 3 games, while St Louis have scored at least 6 runs in each of their last 5 games.
Adam Wainwright is definitely pitching better than he was at the start of the 2012 season and I have faith that he is getting back to his best. Brandon Beachy has the better ERA of the two pitchers, but I can see him having a regression from his 1.62 ERA and getting 2.75 on the Cardinals bats to win this one with a bit to spare looks far too tempting.
I'll only have a small interest in this one though, as I have plenty of respect for the Atlanta Braves.
The Pick :
St Louis Cardinals 5-2 Atlanta Braves
