Baseball Betting – For Pirates, Another Rookie Looks to Pitch a Gem

Charlie Morton Pittsburg Pirates

The St. Louis Cardinals got an incredible performance from a rookie to keep themselves alive in the National League Divisional Series on Tuesday. Now they return home for the deciding fifth game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and have their ace on the mound when it counts the most.

Actually, Game 4 was also a do-or-die situation for St. Louis, and rookie Michael Wacha turned in an effort that will be talked about for years. He had six perfect innings and a no-hitter through seven, and the only run Pittsburgh scored was on the homer Pedro Alvarez hit (his third of the series) as the Cardinals were able to even things up.

In the baseball betting odds that have been posted on this game at BetAnySports, the Cards are pretty solid favorites to advance to the National League Championship Series:

St. Louis Cardinals (Wainwright) -159
Pittsburgh Pirates (Cole) +149

Under 6.5 Runs -120
Over 6.5 Runs +100

Pittsburgh rookie Gerrit Cole, who had an 11-7 record with a 3.14 ERA (including post-season), was brilliant in Game 2 of this series, limiting the Cardinals to just two hits and a run over six innings. The Pirates have won six straight games when Cole is the starting pitcher. During that time Cole has a 1.66 ERA. And the amazing thing about the right-hander is how he is able to get left-handed hitters out. In fact, in his last nine starts, lefties have hit just .191 against him. And Cole has kept the ball out of the ballpark in most cases; allowing just seven homers in 117-1/3 innings.

Here’s the question for baseball bettors at BetAnySports to ponder, though: considering that Cole had never pitched against the Cards before, now that they have gotten an opportunity to see him, will the result be different this time around? It is a foregone conclusion that he won’t be able to pitch to them exactly the same. How will the veteran St. Louis hitters adjust? Remember that the Cardinals were the league leaders in offense.

One of those veteran hitters Cole will be encountering is Carlos Beltran, who has the ability to be a one-man wrecking crew.

Beltran is a .360 hitter in the post-season over the duration of his career, hitting 16 home runs in 37 playoff (and World Series) games. He had one of the two base hits against Cole on Friday, a double. He’s had two homers and six RBI already in the first four games of this series.

Adam Wainwright, ironically, is one of the few pitchers who has been able to subdue Beltran at a critical moment of playoff action, having struck him out in the 2006 NLCS to win Game 7 and send the Cards to the Word Series (this when Beltran was with the Mets). In the regular season he went 19-9 and BetAnySports customers are aware that he would be a prime candidate for the Cy Young Award if not for the presence of Clayton Kershaw. He opposed AJ Burnett in Game 1 of the series, and was sensational, allowing just three hits and one run over seven innings, while striking out nine batters without a walk. Over Wainwright’s last four starts, which have encompassed 27 innings, he has walked only two hitters.

If it’s a pitcher’s duel on Wednesday night, no one would be too surprised.

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