Cards-Phils features exciting pitching pairing
A pair of talented young righties will try to avoid Busch Stadium’s recent homer barrage in tonight’s second contest of a four-game set between the Cardinals and Phillies.
Michael Wacha (2-1, 3.07 ERA) and Aaron Nola (1-2, 3.55) receive the honors in a matchup that should feature less in the way of offensive fireworks. Oddsmakers at online sports book Bovada.lv list Mike Matheny’s group as a 1.5-run favorite, whereas Philadelphia enters as a +140 underdog. The over/under figure holds steady at seven runs.
St. Louis (13-13) used five dingers to power past the opposition, 10-3, yesterday. The rout snapped a mini-losing skid for the Redbirds, while Pete Mackanin’s crew fell for the first time since April 24. Neither Adam Wainwright nor Jeremy Hellickson reached the seventh inning, with Baseball Heaven continuing to give pitchers a hellacious experience. The Cards’ normally hurler-friendly park has now yielded 33 bombs through 13 affairs. Only Chase Field (54), Miller Park (48), Coors Field (39) and the Great American Ballpark (37) are yielding more blasts in the National League.
Wacha and Nola, however, boast the stuff to buck such a trend. Where St. Louis’ No. 2 man in the rotation comes off a quality appearance against the Diamondbacks, Nola struck out seven over seven scoreless frames in last week’s 3-0 shutout of Washington. Despite being somewhat overshadowed by teammate Vince Velasquez so far, the 22-year-old’s doing exactly what the Phillies expected of him when the organization settled on the LSU product as the seventh overall pick in the 2014 amateur draft.
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Philadelphia (15-11) did batter Wacha in a pair of meetings in 2015, but the changeup specialist likely won’t suffer a misstep here. The Phils flailed at numerous offerings out of the strike zone roughly 24 hours ago, and Wacha’s ready to induce the same results. Pay attention to the Cardinals’ initial round of at-bats vs. Nola, though.
TUESDAY MLB FREE PICK: PHILLIES/CARDINALS UNDER 7 RUNS
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