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MLB Preview: Cardinals And Pirates Tangle in Massive Saturday Showdown

The St. Louis Cardinals lost four out of five games the last time they played a series in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. They’ll try to be much better in this three-gamer over the weekend.

St. Louis Cardinals @ Pittsburgh Pirates – Saturday, August 31

In the realm of online sports betting, this game could come across as challenging from one vantage point. Then again, when you look at the specifics of this matchup, a pick can emerge in plain sight.

When looking at pay per head sites, you will obviously see that the Cardinals and Pirates have staged a nip-and-tuck battle over the course of the season. St. Louis stood tall for much of the first half of the season. Pittsburgh came on strong in the middle of the summer – reversing the pattern from the previous two MLB campaigns – and took hold of the National League Central for a few weeks. Recently, the Pirates have gone through a stretch in which they’ve lost 10 of 16 games, renewing anxieties in the Steel City about this team’s ability to finish the full race that is a 162-game season, through the month of September. There are many reasons to pick either team in this, the second game of the three-game weekend series, but when you dig deeper, the arrow is going to point to Pittsburgh as the smart betting play.

Examining 5dimes.com reviews during the course of a baseball season will enable you, as a prospective bettor, to conclude that the Pirates have the far better starting pitcher in this tussle. St. Louis is sending one of its weak links, Lance Lynn, to the mound. Lynn’s ERA is over four runs, which would be somewhat decent in the American League, but certainly not in the National League. Lynn has not been able to withstand the rigors of the season. He is not providing the Redbirds with a lot of added value at the moment. He is going to be quite vulnerable against the Pirates, especially in PNC Park, where the Bucs have posted one of the best home-field records in the big leagues this season.

When you make a betting play at an online sportsbook, you need to account for a lot more than the record of a pitcher. A lot of baseball analysts have talked often this season about the need to supposedly “kill the win,” meaning that crediting a pitcher with a win is hardly a true measure of that pitcher’s performance or quality in a given game. Pittsburgh starter A.J. Burnett proves this point. He has been really, really good for the Bucs this season, posting a terrific 3.18 ERA. Yet, his record in terms of decisions is 6-9. Don’t get sucked into wins and losses and decisions. Burnett is the far better pitcher than Lynn when you set the two men side by side and make an honest comparison. Go with Pittsburgh in this game, as the Pirates try to retake control of the National League Central.

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