The series stays in Saint Louis, and is now tied 2-2. A win by Saint Louis tonight would put Milwaukee’s backs against the wall, needing to win two straight at home to make it through to the World Series. We’ll take a look at who might prevail in this crucial game five
The Cardinals fought back in Game 2 to even the NLCS series at a game a piece. The Cardinals will now send the depricated Chris Carpenter to the mound, the victim of some harsh words by Zach Greinke. We’ll see if Yovani Gallardo is enough to counter a focused and peeved Chris Carpenter. If Carpenter really does the things that Greinke accused him of (prodding batters verbally, yelling at them, in displays of intimidation), he will be doing them even more so tonight. It’s all ready been established these teams have bad blood with one another, which was why the umpire’s warning to both sides following a beaned batter was more significant than any old warning.
In the Series preview, I advocated both a series bet on Milwaukee and to bet the ‘over’ on Game 1. We’ll take a look at the lines for Game 2 and consider how the Cardinals need to adjust if they want to make this a series.
The Cardinals and Brewers will face off in the NL Championship Series beginning at 4 PM on Sunday afternoon. While the Cardinals did knock out the favored team in the MLB playoffs, Milwaukee presents a host of challenges that they did not encounter against the Phillies. For this reason, MLB Oddsmakers have set the line for both game one and for the series, in the Brewers favor. With such a potent offense and decent pitching, the Brewers promise to be a tough foe for both the Cardinals, and for the Tigers or Rangers, should they advance past this series. All Betting odds are taken from Bodog.
Philadelphia Phillies AT Saint Louis Cardinals October 4th, 2011 @ 5 PM EST Betting Line: PHI -140, STL +120 Over/Under: 7 runs Series Tied 1-1 SP: PHI- Cole Hamels; STL- Jaime Garcia
The Phillies and Cards faced each other 9 times this season, and Saint Louis actually won six of those nine matchups, yet still find themselves underdogs in this series. That should be a red flag to value bettors who will find the Cardinals an attractive value at 5/2 odds.
The Arizona Diamondbacks enter the post season as one of baseball’s hottest teams, riding the strong arm of staff ace Ian Kennedy and the hot bat of Justin Upton. They’ll need Kennedy and the rest of the staff to be on the top of their game against a strong hot hitting Brewers’ offense. Kennedy has a legit chance to win the Cy Young. While the rest of the Diamondbacks’ pitchers are no where near as good as Kennedy, Daniel Hudson and Josh Collmenter are having pretty darn good seasons as well, and will keep the Diamondbacks in games.