Sunday MLB Baseball Picks: Rockies vs Cardinals
Make it five wins and five losses for the St. Louis Cardinals over their last 10 games (through Thursday). Not good enough.
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Sunday Night Baseball Betting – Cardinals vs Cubs Preview & Pick
Date: Sunday, August 21, 2001
Venue: Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
Broadcast: ESPN
St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs Betting Lines from Sportsbook.com
Money Line: Cards -128
Over/Under: 8.5
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St. Louis Cardinals (66-58 through August 18)
Jake Westbrook (9-7, 4.81)
The Milwaukee Brewers have elevated their game to a new level and staked a solid lead in the National League Central. The Cards have to step up, too, if they don’t want to fall out of the race.
St. Louis got some great pitching efforts earlier this season from guys like Kyle Lohse and Jaime Garcia but it seems like every starter has regressed in the second half. The Cards miss Adam Wainwright more than ever now.
Jake Westbrook will show up to eat innings and collect his paycheck on Sunday night. With a 3.63 ERA after the All-Star break compared to 5.34 before it, he’s one of the only Cardinals pitcher to improve of late. But the Cubbies have not been kind to him. Westbrook is 0-2 with nine earned runs over 8.1 innings pitched against them this season.
Chicago Cubs (54-70 through August 18)
Rodrigo Lopez (4-3, 4.66)
The Cubs are just playing out the string – and manager Mike Quade is waiting for the axe to fall on his neck – after playing themselves out of the NL Central race months ago. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]
They’ll trot Rodrigo Lopez to the hill on Sunday night. He’s won two straight starts – but those victories came against lowly Washington and Houston. The powerful St. Louis bats are a different story. The Cards absolutely mash Lopez historically, tagging him for 10 homers and a .342 average over just 36.1 innings, giving him a 6.44 ERA.
MLB Trends:
Under is 7-2-2 in STL last 11 overall.
Under is 7-2-2 in STL last 11 on grass.
STL are 2-6 in Westbrooks last 8 starts on grass.
CHC are 6-20 in their last 26 Sun. games.
CHC are 14-5 in their last 19 overall.
CHC are 14-5 in their last 19 games on grass.
Over is 9-3-1 in the last 13 meetings.
Free MLB pick:
While Lopez has handled Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman reasonably well in his career, he can’t say the same about Matt Holliday or Rafael Furcal. Holliday is 5 for 12 (.417) against Lopez, with all five of his knocks being extra-base hits. Furcal bats .385 with two homers and seven RBI in 26 at-bats against Lopez.
Since he struggles so badly against St. Louis, I expect Lopez to sink the Cubbies in the Sunday nighter. Westbrook likely won’t be much better but should do just enough to win.
Sunday Night Baseball prediction: Cardinals 7, Cubs 4
