{"id":16222,"date":"2011-06-25T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2011-06-25T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16222"},"modified":"2011-06-25T11:00:03","modified_gmt":"2011-06-25T16:00:03","slug":"dangerous-underdog-toronto-blue-jays-vs-st-louis-cardinals-pro-baseball-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/dangerous-underdog-toronto-blue-jays-vs-st-louis-cardinals-pro-baseball-betting-preview-16222\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Underdog: Toronto Blue Jays vs St. Louis Cardinals Pro Baseball Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals continue an interleague series Saturday night at Busch Stadium<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays at St. Louis Cardinals<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Toronto Blue Jays OF Jose Bautista hit his 23rd home run last night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto snapped its four-game losing streak last night with a 5-4 win in St. Louis, as outfielder Jose Bautista launched his major league-leading 23rd home run in the ninth inning.\u00a0 \u201cThe last couple of days, I\u2019ve been feeling like I\u2019m a little more on time consistently,\u201d Bautista commented.\u00a0 \u201cAfter that it\u2019s just getting a good pitch to hit.\u201d\u00a0 The Blue Jays offense had managed just three runs and 18 hits over the previous 36 innings before Friday\u2019s 12-hit performance.\u00a0 The club is now 20-21 on the road this season and a solid 28-18 in night contests.<\/p>\n

Blue Jays starting pitcher Carlos Villanueva was handed his first loss of the season versus the Reds last time out, but surrendered just two runs and seven hits in seven strong innings in that contest.\u00a0 Toronto has proven victorious in five of his last six starts.\u00a0 The right-hander has tallied an impressive 3-1 record and 2.52 ERA in 10 road appearances (four starts), as opponents are hitting just .177 against him.\u00a0 In 24 career games (six starts) versus the Cardinals, Villanueva enters with a 4-3 mark and 3.11 ERA, issuing 24 walks and compiling 46 strikeouts in 63 2\/3 frames.<\/p>\n

St. Louis fell to second place in the National League Central race with Friday\u2019s loss and has now dropped three of four games since losing first baseman Albert Pujols to the disabled list with a wrist fracture.\u00a0 \u201cWe show up every day and expect to win,\u201d Cardinals relief pitcher Mitchell Boggs stated.\u00a0 \u201cIt didn\u2019t happen today, but it\u2019s not going to change the way we approach Saturday.\u201d\u00a0 One player that has stepped up his offensive performance in Pujols\u2019 absence is infielder Skip Schumaker, who is hitting .340 with four multi-hit games since June 5.\u00a0 St. Louis is 22-15 during interleague play over the last three years and 31-25 against right-handed starters in 2011.<\/p>\n

Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia is 6-2 with a 3.19 ERA in 15 starts this season and has become one of the best home pitchers in all of baseball.\u00a0 The talented left-hander brings in a perfect 4-0 mark and 0.81 ERA in six outings at Busch Stadium, as opponents are hitting .169 against him.\u00a0 Garcia made a start against the Blue Jays during interleague action last year, earning a win, allowing three runs in six innings.\u00a0 He has bounced back from mediocre May, posting a 1-1 record and 2.96 ERA in four starts this month.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Blue Jays due to their 5-1 mark in Villanueva\u2019s last six starts, while the Cardinals are 0-4 in Garcia\u2019s last four Saturday outings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals continue an interleague series Saturday night at Busch Stadium Toronto Blue Jays at St. Louis Cardinals Toronto snapped its four-game losing streak last night with a 5-4 win in St. Louis, as outfielder Jose Bautista launched his major league-leading 23rd home run in the ninth inning.\u00a0 \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[1757,4957,1754,2401,841,223],"class_list":["post-16222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-busch-stadium","tag-carlos-villanueva","tag-jaime-garcia","tag-jose-bautista","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-toronto-blue-jays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16223,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16222\/revisions\/16223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}