MLB Baseball
2011-04-22 - Cincinnati Reds at St Louis Cardinals
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: MLB Baseball
Friday 22 April 2011 - First Pitch 8:15pm ET
1:15am (British Standard Time)
Preview
Now that the St Louis Cardinals (10-9) have won their first home series of the season, they will look to actually get back to 0.500 at Busch Stadium. They also have a chance to move to the top of their Division as they face the current leaders, the Cincinnati Reds (10-9), in the first of a 3 game series.
The Cardinals were forced to promote Kyle McClellan from the bullpen this season when Adam Wainwright was ruled out with an injury, but things could not have gone much better for them.
McClellan has played 202 times for the Cardinals in the past 3 seasons, but all of those games have come from out of the bullpen. This season he has looked really good as a starter and is 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA from his 3 starts this season.
He held the LA Dodgers to 2 runs from 7 innings pitched in his last outing and he is restricting the opposition batting line up as he goes through the team. The opponents are surprisingly finding it harder to hit McClellan the more he pitches to them, something that is not normally expected from a pitcher in the bullpen.
The pitcher has a 2.95 ERA in 19 games against the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds will be sending Edinson Volquez to the mound and will be hoping he can get out of his recent struggles. Volquez is 2-0 this season, but has a 6.75 ERA and has really struggled to find his control early in games, not a good look against this Cardinals batting line up.
Volquez has given up 17 runs in the 4 starts he has made this season, but incredibly 13 of those have come in the 1st innings of games. He walked 6 batters and gave up 6 runs in his last start, a 6-7 loss to Pittsburgh.
He is 1-1 against the Cardinals in 4 starts and has a 4.98 ERA. Volquez will be hoping for happier memories than his one and only previous visit to Busch Stadium when he was pulled after 1 inning and didnt play again for a year.
Volquez will have to be careful as he faces Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday at the top of the Cardinals order and both have been bashing the ball about.
Head to Head
St Louis may not have won the Division last season, but they did beat Cincinnati 12-6 in the season series.
St Louis have won 6 of the last 7 games between the teams overall and hold a 41-17 home record against them.
St Louis are 2-4 in Game 1's so far this season, but they are 2-1 after a win in their previous game.
Cincinnati are 3-3 in Game 1's, and are 2-0 when coming in following a win.
Other Interesting Notes
St Louis are 9-3 in their last 12 home games against a right handed pitcher.
They are 6-1 in their last 7 games following a game where they have scored at least 5 runs.
Cincinnati are 9-2 in their last 11 games as the road underdog with Edinson Volquez on the mound.
They are 21-6 in their last 27 road games with Volquez as the starter.
However, the Reds are just 7-15 in their last 22 games on the road.
Prediction
Sometimes a team gets hot and it is worth riding the bandwagon and I feel the Cardinals are that team at the moment. They have now scored at least 5 runs in 9 of their last 10 games overall and that kind of run support may be all Kyle McClellan needs if he pitches as he has been.
Cincinnati are a tough team but they had lost 4 in a row before taking the last of a 3 game set in Arizona. They will need Edinson Volquez to find his target area early else it will be tough to get out of a hole against McClellan and the way he has been pitching.
The likes of Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday are in good form, and Lance Berkman will also be back to strengthen this line up and it seems the 2.6 on offer for the Cardinals on the run line is perhaps too big.
The Pick :
St Louis Cardinals 6-3 Cincinnati Reds
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back the St Louis Cardinals -1.5 @ 2.6 (2 UNITS)Follow me on Twitter- the direct link is below
