MLB Betting Free Picks: Arizona @ St. Louis

Added on Jun 30, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

With a couple of days before the World Cup quarterfinals begin, sportsbooks will focus on baseball betting for Wednesday. We’ll take a look at a National League game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and St. Louis Cardinals. D-backs have the worst record in the NL West and are tied for the second worst in the entire league. St. Louis has regained first place in the NL Central by a half game over Cincinnati.

Arizona Diamondbacks (Enright) at St. Louis Cardinals (Suppan)
June 30, 11:15 AM Pacific

Jeff Suppan may not be the ace of the Cards’ staff, but he does offer us a very attractive price on the home favorite. For the year, Suppan’s ERA is 6.65 and the Cards have lost three of his five starts. He’s been a little better in his last three outings with an ERA of 3.95. Arizona counters with Barry Enright who’ll be making his major league debut. A more significant matchup is the two bullpens, and that’s a big advantage for the Cardinals–St. Louis’ pen has a solid 3.26 ERA with an even better 2.83 ERA at home. Arizona, on the other hand, has an abysmal 7.08 bullpen ERA with a road mark of 7.48. Like many young pitchers Enright will be on a strict pitch count and even if he dominates the Cards lineup–doubtful, simply because he’s more of a finesse pitcher–he turns the game over at some point to the gas can totin’ Arizona bullpen. Enright is a very promising prospect, but he’s making the jump from Double A ball here and facing a very tough opponent in his debut.

Compounding Arizona’s problems in this matchup is their road batting average of just .233 and per game run average of 3.9. Between that and their brutal pitching staff its no wonder they’ve struggled away from home–Diamondbacks are 12-30 on the road (-14.2 units) while St. Louis is 25-12 +3.6 units at home. Cards have won 7 of the last 9 against Arizona at home, and with a rookie pitcher on the mound they’ve got a good shot to make it 8 of 10.

Bet St. Louis (Suppan) -130 over Arizona (Enright)