{"id":24275,"date":"2012-08-11T10:01:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-11T15:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=24275"},"modified":"2012-08-11T10:01:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-11T15:01:51","slug":"mlb-picks-2012-st-louis-cardinals-vs-philadelphia-phillies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-picks-2012-st-louis-cardinals-vs-philadelphia-phillies-24275\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Picks 2012: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Philadelphia Phillies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals (61-52) and Philadelphia Phillies (51-61) will continue a three-game National League series on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET<\/p>\n

St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Philadelphia Phillies 2B Chase Utley has hit three home runs in his last seven games<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Louis has dropped three of four games, including a 3-1 setback on the road to Philadelphia on Friday night, as the club\u2019s offense has sputtered of late.\u00a0 The Cardinals are still getting production out of outfielder Carlos Beltran, hitting his 28th home run of the year last night, but the wear and tear of the season may start catching up to a veteran player that\u2019s known to be injury prone.\u00a0 St. Louis is 1-3 as a road underdog of +125 to +150, while the \u201cunder\u201d is 2-1 in that situation.<\/p>\n

Cardinals starting pitcher Jake Westbrook (11-8, 3.76 ERA) has rattled off four wins in a row, but three of those efforts were at Busch Stadium.\u00a0 The right-hander is 4-5 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 road outings, with opposing hitters batting .255 against him.\u00a0 In four career games versus the Phillies, Westbrook has tallied an even 1-1 record and 5.68 ERA, issuing 12 walks and striking out eight batters in 19 frames.<\/p>\n

Philadelphia has won four of five games in this season series, as the club tries to build some momentum heading into the 2013 MLB campaign.\u00a0 The Phillies are hoping that second baseman Chase Utley will be healthy for next year\u2019s run, as he launched his third home run in seven games in last night\u2019s victory.\u00a0 \u201cThat one felt pretty good,\u201d stated Utley after the game.\u00a0 Philadelphia is 14-7 as a home favorite of -125 to -150, with the \u201cover\u201d going 13-8 in those contests.<\/p>\n

Phillies starting pitcher Cliff Lee (2-6, 3.78 ERA) has led the club to three consecutive victories, with the offense providing him 20 runs of support in that span.\u00a0 The left-hander is 0-4 with a 4.53 ERA in eight home outings, but has issued just eight walks and struck out 61 batters in 57.2 innings.\u00a0 In five career games versus the Cardinals, Lee has compiled a 3-1 record and 1.93 ERA, including a no-decision effort in a 5-3 road win on May 25 in the series.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Phillies due to their 8-0 record as a home favorite, while the Cardinals are 1-6 in Westbrook\u2019s last seven efforts against NL East opponents.<\/p>\n

Make sure to check out our Major League Baseball picks<\/a> all season long and get the most up-to-date betting odds at Bookmaker<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The St. Louis Cardinals (61-52) and Philadelphia Phillies (51-61) will continue a three-game National League series on Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 ET St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies \u00a0 St. Louis has dropped three of four games, including a 3-1 setback on the road to Philadelphia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[6878,1752,102,1728,727,98,841],"class_list":["post-24275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-carlos-beltran","tag-citizens-bank-park","tag-cliff-lee","tag-joe-blanton","tag-national-league","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-st-louis-cardinals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275","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=24275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24276,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24275\/revisions\/24276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}