St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Picks, Predictions, Odds & Lines

 

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Los Angeles Dodgers will face off in the wild-card game on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 8:10 p.m. at Dodger Stadium.

St. Louis Cardinals vs. Los Angeles Dodgers Odds & Line Movement

 

The Dodgers are massive favorites to win Wednesday’s game. This season, the Dodgers went 4-3 against St. Louis. The Cardinals have lost two of the three games between these two teams at home.

Notes On The St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals went 22-7 in September, including 17 straight games, to end the regular season and enter the postseason on fire as their archrivals, the Chicago Cubs, went 13-13 in September and dropped two of three games to them.

The Cardinals’ offensive might was evident throughout the season, and it was a major factor in their success. The offense of St. Louis (2nd-best .264/.317/.484) flourished during September. It was a large power surge, as the team hit 52 homers and scored 158 runs, both second in baseball.

St. Louis will start Adam Wainwright, who is 5-5 with a 2.89 ERA in the majors. Over the final two months of the season, Wainwright was excellent, going 9-1 while allowing 21 earned runs in 80.2 innings pitched.The most remarkable thing about him is that he has not given up a home run in eight consecutive starts, and he has only walked 16 batters in his past 12 outings.

 

Notes On The Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers earned their second consecutive trip to the postseason after winning seven straight games. The team also had a fantastic September, going 19-7 and posting a 2.91 ERA thanks in part to an outstanding pitching staff that allowed 10 homeruns in 231.2 innings pitched. Los Angeles struck out just 68 batters and walked 10 people in 391.

This is a fantastic Dodgers’ lineup, in my opinion. They had a good September (.247/.322/.448), blasting 43 homers and scoring 128 runs. Despite the big homerun totals, this is a squad that has struggled to hit for power due to their low doubles and treys totals from last month.

Los Angeles will start Max Scherzer, who was 15-4 with a 2.46 ERA and was great with the Dodgers. He went 7-0 in 11 starts and gave up 15 earned runs in 58 innings as a Dodger.While he has been effective, he has struggled to keep his ERA below 3.00 in his past two starts, allowing five runs on each of those occasions.

 

 

Pick & Prediction: Los Angeles Dodgers -1.5 

That is, until you consider the options. The Dodgers are one of baseball’s greatest pitching staffs and offenses, while St. Louis boasts one of the finest rotations and offenses in the league. In so many categories, however, the Dodgers outperform the Cardinals by a wide margin.

This is the sort of game in which one bad pitch makes all the difference, and when a team gets on a roll in one inning and wins the game, as was the case with Los Angeles last year.

 

This is a wonderful complete set by the bookmakers, as it recognizes that this should be a low-scoring encounter. I could see 6.5 going under in this one. Wainright has only faced the Dodgers once this season, and he was battered for four runs in 8.1 innings on September 8th against them.Max Scherzer’s ERA against the St. Louis Cardinals is 3.00, which is second only to Jake Arrieta’s 0.00 in this series. In 14.2 innings faced against the Cardinals, he has yet to surrender an unearned run. The under appears to be a smart bet here.