St Louis Cardinals vs. SF Giants Preview and Pick

The St. Louis Cardinals, fresh off a 3-game sweep of the lowly Kansas City Royals, head west for three games with the San Francisco Giants beginning Monday night.

St. Louis has won five games in a row and leads the NL Central by 4 games over 2nd-place Cincinnati.

San Francisco has won 7 of its last 10 games to get to 2 games over .500. And although they sit in a tie for last place in the NL West, the Giants are only 2 games out of first.

The Cardinals are 11-8 on the road this year, and 28-13 as favorites.

San Francisco is 11-10 at home this season, 12-14 as underdogs.

St. Louis won the season series with the Giants last year 4 games to 2, with the o/u going 1-5.

Cardinals’ left-hander Mulder (5-1, 3.69) has allowed 5 ER in his last 20 1/3 IP. In his only career start vs. the Giants last year, Mulder tossed 7 innings of shutout ball.SF’s Jamey Wright (4-3, 4.39) has given up 8 ER in his last 20 1/3 IP. In 2 career starts vs. the Cardinals, both of which came last year, Wright has not allowed a run in 12 1/3 IP.

St. Louis owns a .347 team OBP, 4th-best in the NL, and averages 5.1 RPG.

San Fran owns a .339 team OBP, 7th-best in the league, and averages 4.9 RPG.

The Cardinals have scored 29 runs in their last 4 games, but 3 of those were against that sorry Kansas City team.

Giants pitching has allowed just 8 runs in its last 6 games. And the SF bullpen has more than done its job lately, tossing 10 2/3 consecutive innings of shutout ball.

The St. Louis bullpen has allowed 3 ER and 11 H+W in its last 11 1/3 IP.

The o/u is 21-22 in Cardinals games this year, 25-17 in Giants games and, somewhat strangely, 14-6 at AT&T Park.

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The Ultimatecapper Pick: We like the Cards tonight.