Cards’ quest for stability continues vs. Brewers
Not even the prodigious power of Brandon Moss can help mask the Cardinals’ shortcoming in their own backyard right now.
Despite its chief slugger’s 477-foot blast, St. Louis dropped a 4-2 decision to visiting Kansas City on Thursday. The setback sent the Redbirds to a 15-23 mark at Busch Stadium. Baseball Heaven has suddenly morphed into a house of horrors for Mike Matheny’s troops.
Warts and all, though, last year’s NL Central champs remain right in the middle of the 2016 wild-card race. The next opportunity to perform a course correction at home comes tonight, when the Brewers arrive in town. Oddsmakers at online sports book Bovada.lv anticipate a stellar showing from Jaime Garcia and company in the series opener. Milwaukee, conversely, enters as a +145 underdog.
With the grounder-dependent Garcia on the bump, the Cardinals better clean up some sloppy defense. They committed three errors in each of the last two losses to the Royals and have made an MLB-high 62 so far this season. Garcia will nonetheless rely on his fielders as he strives to improve to 11-5 vs. the Brew Crew.
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Milwaukee, of course, is not without its own concerns at present. Craig Counsell’s crew totes a 13-23 mark on the road and got bludgeoned by the Dodgers about 10 hours ago. Matt Garza’s only making his fourth start of the campaign, too, after a right lat strain robbed the veteran righty of two months. He’s 4-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 12 career turns vs. St. Louis.
As the Cards wait for clarity on the status of Stephen Piscotty, the hosts need offensive contributions from individuals other than Moss (.256/.345/.581). We believe that those will materialize shortly. The Brewers remain overmatched here, and the Redbirds should play with no shortage of motivation.
FRIDAY MLB FREE PICK: CARDINALS -1.5
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