Betfair.net

The Florida Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals will square off to decide the outcome of their three game series. The Cardinals took the opener on Monday 11-6 while the Marlins countered last night taking a pitcher's duel 2-1.

The Cardinals have been playing great baseball in the second half of the season. Since August 1st the Cardinals are 28-12 overall. They have had a little struggle so far on their home stand, getting swept by the Atlanta Braves over three games. The strong second half has put the Cardinals 8 ½ games up in the National League Central.

I was surprised to see odds as high as they are to back the Cardinals. On Betfair right now you can back the Cardinals tonight for [1.83]. I really like this play as the Cardinals have a strong home record at 44-30. I also like the pitching matchup for the Cardinals. St. Louis send Joel Pineiro to the hill while the Marlins counter with Josh Johnson. Both pitchers have won 14 games on the season.

Pineiro comes into this contest going 5-1 over his past seven starts. His one loss was in his last start at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. In that game Pineiro allowed just one earned run over seven strong innings of work, striking seven Braves out while walking just two. Pineiro is having a great year carrying a 3.21 ERA compared to his career ERA of 4.37. He has been even better at Busch Stadium this season with an ERA of 2.52.

Johnson has also been great this season. His ERA on the season is 3.06 but does go up to 3.74 on the road. The one knock on Johnson is that he does throw a lot of pitches to get batters out and doesn't make it far into games because of it.

I think [1.83] is great value for a hot team like the Cardinals at home. I like Pineiro to dominate the Marlins hitters. In his one career start against Florida he went seven, giving up just one run to pick up the win. Back the Cards here.