Thursday night baseball and we will see the St louis Cardinals continue their west coast swing as they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in game 1 of their huge 4 game series. The game is scheduled for a 10:10 (ET) pm start time and it will be televised live locally Currently the ODDS have the Dodgers favored at -125, while St Louis is dogs of +118. The total for the game sits at 7.5 runs. 64% of the Public is currently on Los Angeles, while 75% is on the OVER. Get all the Public's action by clicking HERE.
Free Analysis: The St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers have both played themselves out of their divisional races. Now they’re getting close to falling out of the wild card chase. The Cardinals hold a one-game lead over Los Angeles for the second National League wild card, but Milwaukee and Philadelphia are closing fast. The Dodgers have turned their focus toward the wild card after losing six of their last seven games to fall seven games behind NL West-leading San Francisco. St. Louis has dropped 11 of its last 15 games, and their defense is a prime culprit. Since July 1, the Cardinals are 29th among 30 MLB teams in fielding percentage at .980. St. Louis center fielder Carlos Beltran is expected to return Thursday after being rested in Wednesday’s loss to San Diego. Beltran is mired in a 3-for-26 slump with one extra-base hit in his last 61 at-bats, and he's batted just .209 since June 25 while reportedly dealing with injuries in his left knee and left hand. Of course, Beltran isn’t the only one struggling. Matt Holliday and David Freese have both slumped in recent weeks, with Freese batting .246 with 17 RBIs since Aug. 1. The Cardinals go with Lance Lynn (14-7, 4.04) tonight, who returns to the rotation in place of the injured Jake Westbrook after being relegated to the bullpen for the past two weeks. Lynn, who won his first six starts and earned an All-Star nod this season, went 0-1 with a 6.56 ERA in his last five starts before his demotion. His most recent start came Aug. 24 at Cincinnati, where he allowed four runs in two innings of an 8-5 win. He gave up four runs in six frames in a start against the Dodgers on May 18. He will face a slumping dodgers offense tonight. The Dodgers are hitting .184 in their past four games, and Matt Kemp is just 4-for-32 in September. Shortstop Hanley Ramirez has also cooled down, going 4-for-26 over his last seven games. The Dodgers have struggled to score of late, averaging just 2.4 rpg in their last 10 games. The Dodgers open the four-game set with Josh Beckett (1-2, 3.86 ERA), who is 2-2 with a 5.11 ERA in six starts against the Cards but has not faced St. Louis since 2005. Though Beckett allowed four runs in 6 1-3 innings of a 5-2 loss at San Francisco on Friday, he hopes for a second straight strong outing at Dodger Stadium. The right-hander allowed a home run and struck out nine in 6 2-3 innings of a 2-1 victory over Arizona on Sept. 1 in his first appearance at Chavez Ravine since Los Angeles acquired him from Boston. Dodgers RHP Ronald Belisario has not allowed an earned run (one unearned) in his last 12 appearances covering 13 1/3 innings since Aug. 17.
Free Pick: Very important series between these two teams and I will look to take the Over in game one. Lance Lynn has not pitched all that well of late as he has an 8.74 ERA in his last 3 starts, while in 1 start here this year he allowed 4 ER's on 9 hits in 6 innings of a game that saw 11 runs scored. Actually the whole Cardinals staff hasn't been pitching all that well as they have allowed 5.9 rpg in their last 7 games. The Dodgers have been pitching well of late, but not hitting, Still I feel their bats will wake up vs Lynn tonight. Josh Beckett gets the call for LA and he allowed 1 ER in his lone home start for them, but this is such an important game that I feel a desperate St Louis offense will be able to tag him for a few. Look for both offenses to wake up and put at least 4 runs each on the board.
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