The Marlins will look to continue their recent surge this afternoon when they square off against the Cardinals in a game two dust up at Busch Stadium. Today’s game between the two National League rivals is scheduled to get underway at 4:10pm ET. MLB Odds have St. Louis, which will start Kyle Lohse, listed as a -146 moneyline favorite. Miami is drawing +136 odds to win its fourth straight game. The Over/Under is this afternoon’s contest is set at nine runs.
Miami trails the NL East leading Nationals by eight games, but it is much closer to Washington now than it was 10 days ago. Last night’s 3-2 series opening win against the Cardinals represented the Marlins seventh victory in their last nine games and it improved the team’s record to 41-42 on the season.
Should Miami pull off another upset today, it will reach the break even point for the first time since June 17th went it sat at 33-33 following a 3-0 loss to the Rays. The man charged with getting the Marlins back to .500 is former Cubs hurler Carlos Zambrano. Zambrano has had an up and down first year in Miami, looking like his former self at times while resembling the newer Zambrano incarnation on other occasions. Of late, the newer Zambrano has won out with the big right hander giving up 26 hits, 21 earned runs, and 22 walks in his last 22 innings of work (five starts).
Zambrano’s struggles over his last five outings have led to five Miami losses by an average of five runs per game. One of those setbacks came against the Cardinals as the Big Z yielded eight hits and four earned runs over 6.2 innings in a 2-5 loss to St. Louis on June 26th.
The Cardinals, who at 44-40 trail the first place Pirates by 2.5 games in the NL Central standings, will look to rebound from last night’s loss with veteran righty Kyle Lohse toeing the rubber. Lohse, who is 3-1 with a 2.81 ERA at Busch Stadium this season, is 8-2 with a 2.80 on the year. He is 2-0 with a 1.84 ERA in two starts against the Marlins this year.
MLB Odds Betting Trend: The Marlins are 1-9 in their last 10 games as a road dog against an NL Central team with a game total between 8.5 and 9 runs.
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MLB Odds 2012 Miami Marlins vs St. Louis Cardinals: Provided by SBG Global
Miami Marlins +1.5 (-150), Over 9 (-110), +136 (Moneyline)
St. Louis Cardinals -1.5 (+130), Under 9 (-110), -146 (Moneyline)
