The St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillies face off for game one of their series in St. Louis.
The St. Louis Cardinals have been playing solid baseball but that isn’t good enough to hold their ground in the N.L. Central. The Cardinals are 5-5 in their last 10 games, 12-8 at home this season, and lead the Reds by a half of a game in the National League Central. As a team the Cardinals are hitting .277 with Rafael Furcal hitting .339, Yadier Molina hitting .297, and Carlos Beltran hitting .292. As a team the Cardinals pitching staff has an ERA of 3.55 with the starters at 3.20 and the bullpen at 4.37. For game one against the Phillies St. Louis starts Jake Westbrook who has lost two of his last three decisions. For the season Westbrook has allowed 52 hits and 14 earned runs while striking out 34 over 52.1 innings of work for a 2.41 ERA.
The Philadelphia Phillies are starting to play better baseball but they still have a lot of teams to jump in the standings to get back a top the N.L. East. The Phillies are 6-4 in their last 10 games, 11-10 on the road this season, and are in last place in their division but they are just 4.5 games back. As a team the Phillies are hitting .263 with Carlos Ruiz hitting .357, Placido Polanco hitting .275, and Shane Victorino is hitting .267. As a team the Phillies pitching staff has an ERA of 3.63 with the starters at 3.24 and the bullpen at 4.74. For game one in St. Louis Philadelphia starts Joe Blanton who is coming off of his worst outing of the season getting bombed by Boston. For the season Blanton has allowed 54 hits and 22 earned runs while striking out 39 over 53 innings of work for a 3.74 ERA.
St. Louis is 8-2 in their last 10 games against a team with a losing record, 2-5 in their last seven games against a right handed starter, and 6-2 in Westbrook’s last eight starts against the N.L. East. Philadelphia is 2-5 in the last seven meetings of these two.
I don’t see a ton of scoring here and I look for this one to come in under the total. I also have a play on the winner and I will post that in the Premium Area.
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