MLB Baseball
2012-04-13 - Chicago Cubs at St Louis Cardinals
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
United States: Major League Baseball
Friday 13 April 2012 - First Pitch 3:15pm ET
8:15pm (British Standard Time)
Preview
The St Louis Cardinals (5-2) clearly took offence to the suggestion that they had no chance of repeating their World Series success from last season after they lost Albert Pujols to the LA Angels and manager Tony La Russa retired. They have started the season in very good form and now take on the Chicago Cubs (2-5) in their first home game of the season.
The Cardinals have been hammering teams off the plate, and they lead the National League in terms of runs scored in 2012 and with the batting average of 0.301 as they cover up the absence of Pujols. Lance Berkman has had a very good start to 2012, but could miss this series as he is having hamstring issues.
Adam Wainwright will be given the ball to open the St Louis season at home, the second time he has been given this honour, and he will be pitching for the first time in this ballpark since 2010 after missing all of last season.
The pitcher gave up 3 runs in under 6 innings pitched in his first start of the season as the Cardinals were beaten 6-0 at Milwaukee. He only allowed 4 hits in that game, although one went out of the park, and there are positives from the fact Wainwright walked 1 and also struck out 6.
Wainwright has had some career success against the Chicago Cubs, restricting them to 2 runs or fewer in 6 of his last 7 starts against them, although he was beaten around in his last home start against them in September 2010.
He will be up against a Chicago batting line up that woke up yesterday as they exploded for 13 hits and 8 runs in a win over the Milwaukee Brewers to take the final of a 4 game series. The Cubs had been struggling at the plate before that game, averaging just 0.221 in their previous 6 games.
Jeff Samardzija will be given his second start of the season for the Cubs and impressed in his opening game after being a relief pitcher for them last season. He gave up 3 runs from 4 hits in a 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals at home in 8.2 innings pitched and would have completed the game if not for an error from his fielding team.
He has pitched just under 23 innings against the St Louis Cardinals in the past and he has a 6.04 ERA against them.
Head to Head
St Louis finished with a 10-5 season series win over the Chicago Cubs last season, and they were 7-2 in their home games.
The Cardinals are also 8-2 in their last 10 games against the Cubs with Adam Wainwright starting on the mound.
Prediction
I am going to back the St Louis Cardinals to win this game and cover the run line for the following reasons:
First, even though Lance Berkman looks set to miss out, the Cardinals batting line up has been in fine form to start the season and should be able to put some runs up on the board in their home opener.
Second, the Cubs might have broken out last night, but they have struggled at the plate so far in 2012.
Third, I expect Adam Wainwright will be one of the better pitchers in the National League this season and I think he will have a solid opener against a team he has regularly handled in the past.
The Pick :
St Louis Cardinals 7-3 Chicago Cubs
