{"id":5101,"date":"2009-07-31T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-31T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/mlb-betting-saturday-baseball-picks-2\/"},"modified":"2009-07-31T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-31T20:41:00","slug":"mlb-betting-saturday-baseball-picks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2009\/07\/mlb-betting-saturday-baseball-picks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Betting – Saturday Baseball Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NFL betting<\/a> is the last thing on <\/span><\/font>St. Louis<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> fans’ minds\u2014wouldn’t you block out the memory of the Rams if you were them? — but<\/span> they have a good baseball team to watch right now. Their Cardinals host the resurgent Houston Astros in a crucial NL Central matchup this weekend. Who will win Saturday’s game\u2014not to mention the pitcher’s duel between Philly and San Fran?<\/p>\n

Houston Astros @ St. Louis Cardinals
<\/span><\/b>Saturday, August 1, 7:10 p.m. ET
Wandy<\/span> Rodriguez (10-6, 2.65) vs<\/span> Chris Carpenter (9-3, 2.19)<\/p>\n

Saturday’s Astros\/Cardinals tilt gives you an opportunity to make a highly “educated guess,” as it features two veteran starters who have faced the opposing team\u2014a divisional rival\u2014many times. Wandy<\/span> Rodriguez has been a machine since the All-Star break and, really, all season long. However, while he was 4-0 with a 0.75 ERA July, he now enters his worst career month (6-9, 5.37 in August). He should hang tough against the Cardinals regardless, as he has a 3.38 ERA at Busch Stadium. He faces world-beater Chris Carpenter, who’s 5-1 with a 1.76 ERA at home this season. Carpenter is also 5-3 with four complete games and two shutouts all-time against the Astros, so you should probably bet on the Cards. <\/p>\n

Daily sports pick: Cardinals <\/p>\n

Philadelphia Phillies @ San Francisco Giants
<\/span><\/b>Saturday, August 1, 9:05 p.m. ET
Joe Blanton (7-4, 4.11) vs<\/span> Tim Lincecum<\/span> (11-3, 2.30)<\/p>\n

Joe Blanton is portly – not quite in the realm of Charlie Weis in college football betting<\/a>, but close\u2014yet he’s getting it done on the mound lately. He’s still serving up homers like crazy but went 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA in July. He’ll have to pitch around new Giant Ryan Garko<\/span>, who has three homers and a 1.509<\/span> OPS in just 14 at bats against him, but he’s pitching well enough that he should keep the Frisco bats in check. <\/p>\n

Cy Young candidate Tim Lincecum<\/span> takes the hill for the Gaints<\/span>, fresh off his 15-strikeout performance against Pittsburgh<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>. In theory, it’s bad betting management<\/a> to go against Lincecum<\/span>, but there’s upset value here. Lincecum’s<\/span> career ERA against the Phillies is north of 4.00 and he’s allowed a handful of homers against them\u2014something he doesn’t do very often. Ryan Howard may get to him, as he’s already taken him deep twice in nine at-bats. Lincecum<\/span> is obviously an amazing pitcher, but even the best have the odd speed bump, and no team is better equipped to get to him than the Phillies. <\/p>\n

Daily sports pick<\/a>: Phillies<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

OffshoreInsiders.com<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NFL betting is the last thing on St. Louis fans’ minds\u2014wouldn’t you block out the memory of the Rams if you were them? — but they have a good baseball team to watch right now. Their Cardinals host the resurgent Houston Astros in a crucial NL Central matchup this weekend. Who will win Saturday’s game\u2014not … Continue reading MLB Betting – Saturday Baseball Picks<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}