Thursday MLB Free Pick
(The Spread) – After a strenuous road trip, the Los Angeles Dodgers return home for Game 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night.
Oddsmakers from online sports book SBGGLOBAL.com have made the Dodgers –108 money line favorites over the visiting Cardinals, who are +102 on the ML. The over/under total for this game is currently 6.5 runs and the first pitch will be thrown at 10:10PM ET.
It appears as though the Cards might be finding their stroke. After dropping their first two games in San Francisco (two games they could have easily won) to start their West Coast road trip, they beat the Giants 6-1 last Sunday and just took two of three from the Diamondbacks in Arizona. In Game 3 against the D-Backs on Wednesday, the Cards racked up 15 runs in a 15-5 blowout.
The Dodgers come home after an exhausting eight-game road trip, one in which saw they drop to 6-6 overall after losing five of eight. After beating the Giants 6-1 on Monday, L.A. has now dropped two-straight and is reeling a little bit after squandering late-game leads in both contests.
MLB Free Pick: After struggling this spring, Jaime Garcia has come out of the gates this season pitching like he did in 2010. He blanked the Padres in his first outing of the year, pitching nine innings of shutout ball while allowing just four hits and striking out nine. He took a no decision last weekend against the Giants, although he pitched well in that game too, going six innings allowing just one run on four hits. He’ll face Hiroki Kuroda tonight, a pitcher that has also started 2011 on the right foot. Kuroda is 2-0 in his first two games, sporting a 1.72 ERA over 15.2 innings. But as previously noted, the Dodgers are struggling a bit and if Garcia can figure out a way to tame Matt Kemp, the Cardinals could steal Game 1 tonight. According to latest MLB trends, the Cardinals are 4-1 in their last five Thursday night games and 5-2 in Garcia’s last seven starts after scoring five runs or more in their previous game. Take St. Louis.
THURSDAY MLB FREE PICK: ST. LOUIS CARDINALS +102
Bet Cardinals vs. Dodgers Odds
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