Saturday Night in MLB we will see the St Louis Cardinals travel to New York to take on the New York Mets. The game is scheduled for an 8:05 pm start time and it will be televised live on ESPN2. Currently the odds have St Louis favored at -105, while New York is  a dog of -101. The total for the game is at 8.5 runs.
Free Analysis: The Cardinals have just seven hits in this series so far, as they were no-hit by Johan Santana in an 8-0 loss on Friday and blanked by knuckleballer R.A. Dickey in Saturday’s 5-0 defeat. The Cardinals struggles in this series aren’t that surprising, considering they are now 3-9 with four shutouts in their past 12 games at Citi Field, while they are 7-17 in their past 24 games against New York overall.  Jake Westbrook (4-4, 3.84 ERA, 1.38 WHIP) gets the Ball for the Cardinals tonight and he relies heavily on his sinker, but allowed two homers in Atlanta his last time out. The good news for Westbrook is that the Mets won’t likely take him deep, considering there are only two teams with fewer home runs than their 38 HR for the season.  Westbrook, who has a strong 2.81 ERA on the road this year, has faced New York three times in his career, pitching very well in his two most recent starts, both last season. He beat Niese 6-2 at Citi Field on July 21, limiting the Mets to two runs in eight innings. Then he held New York to just one run in six frames in a no-decision on September 22.  St. Louis has hit lefty starters pretty well this season (5.4 runs per game, .276 BA, .340 OBP). New York’s pitching has been outstanding in the past eight games, posting four shutouts and leading the team to a 6-2 record. Left-hander Jon Niese will try to keep it going for the Mets, but he has been wildly inconsistent in his past six starts, allowing five, two, zero, eight, one and four runs. Despite the erratic performance of Niese (3-2, 4.55 ERA, 1.32 WHIP), the southpaw has been much more comfortable at Citi Field, where he’s posted a 1.08 WHIP with 25 K’s in 24 innings this season. Niese has faced St. Louis once per season since 2009, going 1-1 with a 2.63 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. He allowed five runs (3 ER) in six innings opposing Westbrook last year, but he gave up only one run in six innings to the Cards in 2010.  Mets star 3B David Wright is 0-for-7 with two strikeouts against Westbrook, but he has batted .372 with 4 HR and 16 RBI in 27 career home games against St. Louis. The Mets are 23-9 vs Righties this year.Â
Free Pick: I like the Over in this one. The Cards have been shut out in their last 2 games, but they have still hit lefties well this year, scoring 5.4 runs per game and hitting 276 BA,  with an .340 OBP vs southpaws this year. Yes they were shutout the last 2 games and no-Hit by a lefty on Friday, but this is still not a team that will continue to struggle offensively for a prolonged period of time. Last week the Cards were shutout by Philly and then went on to score 27 runs in their next 4 games. They also get to face Jon Niese, who has a 7.47 ERA in his last 3 starts. Jon has also pitched much better in the day (2.35 ERA) than at night (9.53 ERA) Jake Westbrook has really struggled of late with an 8.10 ERA in his last 4 starts and he should have problems tonight vs a met team that has averaged 5.8 rpg in their last 5 games. This one should reach DD with ease. Â
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