The Houston Astros head into St Louis for a quick two game inter-league series with the Cardinals. This may be an inter-league matchup now but it was only a couple years back the Astros were in the NL Central with the Cardinals. It’s probably a good thing the Astros moved to the AL because the Cardinals have dominated the Astros winning 24 of the last 33 meetings including the last 8 straight played in St Louis.
Head to Head Trends
Astros are 9-24 in the last 33 meetings.
Astros are 0-8 in the last 8 meetings in St. Louis.
St Louis Cardinals (-150)
The St Louis Cardinals are 2nd in the National League Central 7 games over .500 and 8.5 games back of the 1st place Chicago Cubs. The Cardinals are the highest scoring team in the National League averaging 5.6 runs per game. Over their last 5 games the Card’s offense has been pretty hot batting .277 and averaging 7.40 runs per game.
Starting for the Cardinals today is lefty Jamie Garcia who is 4-5 with a 3.89 ERA on the season. Garcia has been a little hit or miss so far this season. When Garcia is on his game he’s hard to beat. He had a complete game 1 hitter early this season and he also had a couple outings that saw him throw 7 shutout innings but apart from those few games he’s only had one other quality start so there hasn’t been much consistency so far.
St Louis Cardinals Trends
Cardinals are 5-0 in their last 5 overall.
Cardinals are 8-3 in Garcias last 11 starts with 5 days of rest.
Houston Astros (+140)
The Houston Astros are 3rd in the American League West 5 games under.500 and 9.5 games out of 1st place. The Astros had one good hot stretch this season where they won 11 of 13 games but they haven’t really been all that good for most of the season. That’s not really much of a surprise because they are a team built around offense so when they’re hitting well they can win a lot of games but when their bats start to slump they have a real hard time winning.
On the hill for the Astros in this one is Doug Fister who is 6-3 with a 3.34 ERA on the season. Fister had a couple rough outings to start the season but since then 9 of his 10 starts have been quality starts and the only one that wasn’t he was just 1 out away from a quality start so he’s pretty much the opposite of Garcia when it comes to consistency.
Houston Astros Trends
Astros are 5-14 in their last 19 games vs. a left-handed starter.
Astros are 8-0 in Fisters last 8 starts.
Conclusion
I’m going with the St Louis Cardinals over the Astros in this one. The Cardinals are hitting the ball well right now averaging 7.40 runs per game over their last 5 games while the Astros bats have really cooled off of late averaging just 2.60 runs per game over their last 5.
Free Pick: St Louis Cardinals at -150 from Bovada
