Baseball Betting Picks: Washington Nationals at St. Louis Cardinals

Added on Apr 19, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

The St. Louis Cardinals try to get back on the right side of the ‘Mendoza Line’ as they welcome the Washington Nationals to Busch Stadium for the first of a three game set. The 8-8 cards are still well off the pace in the NL Central, while the 8-7 Nationals are in the middle of the pack in the tough NL East.

Washington Nationals (Lannen) at St. Louis Cardinals (Westbrook)
April 19, 2011 5:15 PM Pacific

Steven Strasburg got all of the hype for the Nationals last season and while he was certainly deserving of the accolades they did serve to overshadow the solid effort turned in by John Lannen. The 4th year starter was only 8-8 in 2010 but improved as the year progressed and was also a very profitable investment for baseball betting enthusiasts earning 7.7 units of profit overall. He’s off to a good start this season with a 3.37 ERA and a +1.95 unit tally as the Nats have won 2 of his 3 starts.

The Cards have steadied the ship after their slow start but Jake Westbrook remains in bad form. St. Louis has lost 2 of his 3 assignments this season and Westbrook brings a bloated 7.63 ERA and a horrible 16.63 ERA at home. Even in his one victory he didn’t pitch especially well, allowing 9 hits though only 2 earned runs as the Cards bats did the work in a 15-5 win over Arizona. St. Louis has dominated in head to head play, winning 9 of the last 13 meetings including 5 straight at home. We think the Nats are flying ‘under the radar’ somewhat among the betting public and that St. Louis is still overvalued. St. Louis lost a ton of money for bettors last season and particularly at home and based on their YTD performances the Nationals have a big edge in the starting pitching. Nats in good form as a team, winning 3 straight games and 7 of their last 10. Cards could be looking ahead to a weekend series against their big divisional rivals Cincinnati–Nationals are an easy team to overlook but so far in 2011 they’ve been playing much better baseball than their hosts. We’ll take the price with the plucky Nationals.

Bet Washington Nationals (Lannen) +145 over St. Louis Cardinals (Westbro0k)