MLB odds Make Cardinals Huge Favorites to Avoid Astros Brooms
Bud 'Cardinal Killer' Norris gets the call today in St. Louis as the Houston Astros go for what would be a shocking sweep against Chris Carpenter and the Redbirds.
Believe it or not, the Houston Astros have a shot at sweeping a series today when they face the Cardinals in the finale at Busch Stadium. If statistical history has a say in the matter, Houston has more than just a shot.
David S. 'Bud' Norris will be on the mound for the Astros in St. Louis looking to extend his mastery of the Cardinals. Norris has made three starts versus the Cards since being called up last August. The Astros have not only won all three games, but Norris has yet to yield an earned run to Albert Pujols and his mates.
Chris Carpenter (6-1, 2.80) is next in line among St. Louis starters to try his luck against Norris (2-4, 7.52). Just as he has been in two of his previous three assignments versus St. Louis, Norris will be a huge underdog. St. Louis carries heavy 270-275 chalk into the match with the total set at 7½.
The Astros rode their largest single inning of the season, a four-run seventh, to a 6-3 win in the series opener on Tuesday. Houston and Brett Myers were 205 underdogs against Brad Penny, with a rare 'over' for both teams.
Houston took advantage of some more uncharacteristic shoddy St. Louis fielding in Game 2 for a 9-6 win. The Cards were minus 175 going against Wandy Rodriguez and 'over' bettors once again cashed their tickets.
Season records have the Astros 12-21 and down a little under seven units while St. Louis is 20-14 and just about even at the window.
There's really no explanation for why Norris has dominated this fine Cardinals lineup while struggling against almost all other comers. His strikeout-to-walk ratio against St. Louis (17/9) is very similar to the same rate against the rest of the lineups he's faced (70/36).
The only glaring statistical explanation is that he has yet to allow a long ball to the Redbirds in 18 innings. Norris has given up 11 in his 64 career frames when not facing St. Louis. But even that doesn't hold much water since he has surrendered just two this season, both in his last start on May 7 at home to the Padres.
Carpenter missed a shot at the feeble Astros lineup when they came through the Gateway City in April. In three of his starts versus Houston in '09, St. Louis was 1-2 despite Carpenter's fine stats -- 23 IP, 5 ER, 14/4 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Cardinals have won Carpenter's last five starts this season, with the big right-hander posting just one non-quality start among his seven mound assignments. One factor in the five St. Louis wins with him on the mound recently is that Carpenter hasn't yielded a home run since his second trip to the hill on April 11.
With all that information behind us, this game may not make it into the history books because of weather. There is a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms, some of them severe with strong winds and hail. Daytime highs are only expected to reach the upper-70s for the St. Louis area, and the SSW winds up to 20 mph and higher would be blowing out to center, left-center.
A veteran of 23 MLB seasons, Jim Joyce is the scheduled plate umpire. That is fine for Norris and the Astros with Joyce 4-2 in favor of the visitors in his six games calling balls and strikes this season. The 'under' is also 4-2 in Joyce's plate assignments.
He worked the dish in three Astros games during the 2009 campaign, with Houston victorious in all three.
The 'Stros head out from St. Louis after the game for a weekend series in San Francisco. That could play into how long any rain delay is allowed to carry on before Thursday's contest might be suspended. The Cardinals will be making the short trip to Porkopolis following this game to take on the Reds over the weekend.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
Bud 'Cardinal Killer' Norris gets the call today in St. Louis as the Houston Astros go for what would be a shocking sweep against Chris Carpenter and the Redbirds.
Believe it or not, the Houston Astros have a shot at sweeping a series today when they face the Cardinals in the finale at Busch Stadium. If statistical history has a say in the matter, Houston has more than just a shot.
David S. 'Bud' Norris will be on the mound for the Astros in St. Louis looking to extend his mastery of the Cardinals. Norris has made three starts versus the Cards since being called up last August. The Astros have not only won all three games, but Norris has yet to yield an earned run to Albert Pujols and his mates.
Chris Carpenter (6-1, 2.80) is next in line among St. Louis starters to try his luck against Norris (2-4, 7.52). Just as he has been in two of his previous three assignments versus St. Louis, Norris will be a huge underdog. St. Louis carries heavy 270-275 chalk into the match with the total set at 7½.
The Astros rode their largest single inning of the season, a four-run seventh, to a 6-3 win in the series opener on Tuesday. Houston and Brett Myers were 205 underdogs against Brad Penny, with a rare 'over' for both teams.
Houston took advantage of some more uncharacteristic shoddy St. Louis fielding in Game 2 for a 9-6 win. The Cards were minus 175 going against Wandy Rodriguez and 'over' bettors once again cashed their tickets.
Season records have the Astros 12-21 and down a little under seven units while St. Louis is 20-14 and just about even at the window.
There's really no explanation for why Norris has dominated this fine Cardinals lineup while struggling against almost all other comers. His strikeout-to-walk ratio against St. Louis (17/9) is very similar to the same rate against the rest of the lineups he's faced (70/36).
The only glaring statistical explanation is that he has yet to allow a long ball to the Redbirds in 18 innings. Norris has given up 11 in his 64 career frames when not facing St. Louis. But even that doesn't hold much water since he has surrendered just two this season, both in his last start on May 7 at home to the Padres.
Carpenter missed a shot at the feeble Astros lineup when they came through the Gateway City in April. In three of his starts versus Houston in '09, St. Louis was 1-2 despite Carpenter's fine stats -- 23 IP, 5 ER, 14/4 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
The Cardinals have won Carpenter's last five starts this season, with the big right-hander posting just one non-quality start among his seven mound assignments. One factor in the five St. Louis wins with him on the mound recently is that Carpenter hasn't yielded a home run since his second trip to the hill on April 11.
With all that information behind us, this game may not make it into the history books because of weather. There is a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms, some of them severe with strong winds and hail. Daytime highs are only expected to reach the upper-70s for the St. Louis area, and the SSW winds up to 20 mph and higher would be blowing out to center, left-center.
A veteran of 23 MLB seasons, Jim Joyce is the scheduled plate umpire. That is fine for Norris and the Astros with Joyce 4-2 in favor of the visitors in his six games calling balls and strikes this season. The 'under' is also 4-2 in Joyce's plate assignments.
He worked the dish in three Astros games during the 2009 campaign, with Houston victorious in all three.
The 'Stros head out from St. Louis after the game for a weekend series in San Francisco. That could play into how long any rain delay is allowed to carry on before Thursday's contest might be suspended. The Cardinals will be making the short trip to Porkopolis following this game to take on the Reds over the weekend.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
