MLB Betting: Look For Cardinals To Continue Winning Streak

The length of the MLB betting season makes it unlikely that a team on top of their division in April will still be there once the final pitch of the regular season has been tossed. How many times have we seen a team with a huge lead at the All-Star Break suddenly go in the tank and blow it in the second half? The St. Louis Cardinals are the dominant team in baseball right now, and they look like a team built to go the long haul. They will play the last of a 4-game series versus the Cubs in St. Louis on Thursday afternoon.

St Louis vs Chicago: MLB Betting Analysis and Game Preview

Date: Thursday, May 07, 2015 Time: 1:45PM Venue: Busch Stadium Opening Line: St Louis -126 The Cardinals (20-6) have come flying out of the gate to start the season, and are the first club to hit the 20-win mark. As hot as they are right now, there were some who believed that losing Adam Wainwright for the season would be a blow that they would have a tough time handling. That has certainly not been the case to this point, as they have the best defensive record in the league by far, having surrendered only 72 runs to this point. Many believed that the Cards would win with power, but they are doing it by getting guys on base at an alarming rate, and by playing great defensive ball. They seem to have struck a perfect balance that is going to be difficult for other teams to crack. Veteran hurler John Lackey (1-1, 3.69 ERA) will get the start for St. Louis on Thursday. Lackey delivered a quality start in his last outing, giving up just 1 run in 6 innings of ball against the Pirates. The Chicago Cubs (13-12) have been a little bit of a surprise package so far this season, as the thought was that their young squad was still a year or two away from making a serious challenge. It is looking as though that indeed might be the case, as thy have cooled off considerably after a very impressive start to the season. The Cubs have lost 5 of their last 6 starts, including the first 2 games of this 4 game series versus the Cardinals. Each loss to St. Louis sees them fall a little further off the pace, and they are now in serious danger of being swept and dropping below .500. The bats have gone very cold, and this team is now striking out at a pretty alarming rate. They will try to stop the bleeding when they send Jake Arrieta (3-2, 2.84 ERA) to the hill on Thursday. Arrieta took the loss in his last outing against the Brewers in a game where he was hit pretty hard.

Key Betting Trends

St. Louis is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games St. Louis is 5-0 SU in its last 5 games at home St. Louis is 6-3 SU in its last 9 games when playing Chi Cubs The total has gone UNDER in 4 of St. Louis’s last 6 games when playing Chi Cubs St. Louis is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games when playing at home against Chi Cubs Chi Cubs is 1-5 SU in its last 6 games Chi Cubs is 2-4 SU in its last 6 games on the road The total has gone OVER in 4 of Chi Cubs’s last 5 games on the road Chi Cubs is 3-6 SU in its last 9 games when playing St. Louis The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Chi Cubs’s last 6 games when playing St. Louis

What Should You Bet On?

The Cardinals are on an 8-game win streak at the time of writing, and are showing no signs of slowing down. They have scored 17 runs in the first 2 games of this series, and while I expect this one to be a little lower scoring, I still like St. Louis to win.   Sources ESPN.com (http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/5203/john-lackey) MLB.com (http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=453562)