Cards’ Wainwright lies in wait for Reds
The Cardinals mashed their way to a 12-7 win over Cincinnati last night. Now the visiting team hands the ball to its ace to claim yet another set in the Queen City.
Adam Wainwright receives the nod in this evening’s rubber match vs. the Reds, with a 7:10 p.m. ET first pitch by the Ohio River. Handicappers at online sports book BetDSI like Mike Matheny’s club to prevail, whereas Cincy enters as a +149 underdog. The over/under run figure currently rests at 9.5.
The Redbirds own victories in three of five meetings with Bryan Price’s group in 2016. In fact, St. Louis has terrorized its NL Central rival for quite a while. Unless the Reds (22-37) can solve Wainwright in a few hours, they’ll succumb to the Cards for the seventh time in the past 10 series contested at Great American Ball Park.
Of course, Cincinnati’s odds of torching St. Louis’ stalwart righty look pretty murky. After going 1-3 with a 7.16 ERA in April, Wainwright is beginning to resemble the guy who challenged Clayton Kershaw for Cy Young honors earlier in the decade. He’s 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA since May 18, and that patented curveball seems to get nastier with each passing assignment.
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If Wainwright’s lumber-wielding friends build on Wednesday’s 14-hit assault, however, the Grade A stuff may not even be necessary. The Cardinals (31-28) bashed four homers in the middle tilt, with two coming from Brandon Moss. Matheny’s ultimate bench threat now boasts 13 blasts in a mere 142 at-bats.
Moss probably won’t face fellow lefty Brandon Finnegan (2-4, 3.89 ERA), though. Price’s lone southpaw in the rotation got knocked around a bit by Washington in his most recent outing. Things aren’t liable to improve much against such an eternally vexing foe.
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