Baseball Betting Picks: St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs

Added on May 11, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds are starting to pull away from the pack in the NL East after a slow start to the season. The Redbirds will try to keep their recent run of victories going as they head to Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs are playing slightly worse than mediocre baseball this season and check in at 15-19 a full 5 games back of the division leading Cards.

St. Louis Cardinals (Westbrook) at Chicago Cubs (Garza)
May 11, 2011 5:05 PM Pacific

There are three things in life that are certain–death, taxes and the Chicago Cubs being overpriced at home. The public loves the Cubs and they especially love betting them at Wrigley Field. That’s bad news for them–the Cubs invariably lose money on the their home field. This season they’re already 7-11 -6.2 units and since 1997 they’ve lost their financial backers a whopping -145.4 units on their home field!

That may be bad news for Cubs backers but its good news for us since we try to go against them at Wrigley Field every chance we get. We especially see no reason to change that strategy here with the first place Cardinals. St. Louis is rounding into competitive form and starting pitcher Jake Westbrook has been pitching well in his recent outings. Matt Garza has talent, but has been mediocre at best so far this season. Cubs have been competitive in recent years against their regional rivals, but we just can’t pass up St. Louis at an underdog price. Jake Westbrook has won both of his career starts against Chicago while Matt Garza was shelled in his only career start against St. Louis which is why his career ERA against the Redbirds is a brutal 12.47.

Ultimately, this is a play against the ’public’ and their love for the Cubs at Wrigley Field and a good value play as we’re getting the better team in better form–and in our view the better pitcher in better form–at an underdog price. Cards won the opening game of a three game set last night and we see them doing no worse than two of three with the sweep a real possibility.

Bet St. Louis Cardinals (Westbrook) +110 over Chicago Cubs (Garza)