One is a bird. Another is a fish. Yet they both are in hot water if they don’t step up their games. I’m speaking of the Cardinals and the Marlins, both with plenty of player power, both with crazy division leaders throwing off the whole axis of their divisions. The Cards have been shocked with the emergence on the Pirates and Reds moving to the top of the NL Central while the Marlins cant fall any further in the NL East sitting in last with the Phillies but only sit 8 games back. As this season has shown no one can be counted out say past the Cubs and Padres from gaining ground once anyone slips up. The Cards however are still tied in 2nd with the hot Pirates so I’d say staying up top for them could be a little harder, whereas Miami will stay in the middle most of the season and don’t look to be building a playoff run at all.

St. Louis has had some nasty competition in the NL Central and as a favorite for the win they’ve done well to stay in the hunt going towards the All Star Break. 6-4 in their last 10 games, they seem to be getting in a groove but cant be trusted yet since the last sweep they had was against the Royals and that’s not saying much. They Cards have really not seen a huge loss since their move of Pujols since they are the 3rd best hitting team in the league. 2nd in Batting Average, 3rd in OPS, and a nice 5 run average per game. Yadier Molina is batting a .314 leading the teams BA and Carlos Beltran sits very nice with 20 HRs, so I’d have to say hitting is their thing. Taking the mound in this game is Kyle Lohse who has had a good season so far at 6-2 and split in his last 2. A nice low ERA of 2.85 and a decent WHIP of 1.11 he looks to knock off any of the struggling batting squad of
the Marlins. Hes 1-2 in in NL East opponents this season. They will be stellar against a shaky Zombrano.

Did I say shaky Zombrano? Of course I did. He dropped the last 2 against the AL East Rays and his WHIP in those games was at 2.79. Yikes. He is the definition of an inconsistant pitcher. Sure it may be because he’s getting used to his new team but were 3 months into the season. Besides his last 2 games he’s got a 4.01 ERA and a WHIP of 1.30, which you don’t need me to tell you how bad that is for him. I reported last week about how bad the batting of the Marlins was and it hasnt changed, if anything its gotten worse. They’ve dropped several of their last series and only won 2 of 10. Even with a new stadium they haven’t decided to pump up the roster with winners. Their best stat is Stealing Bases if that tells you anything. Sure, Omar Infante is having a decent year (.292) but with Lohse pitching against them, I don’t see them coming out with a win at all.

The fact of the matter in this game the Marlins just don’t have the offense to compete. There’s little to no faith in the Marlins winning this game against a guy whos pitching so well and a squad that is crushing bats for any team that lets them. I say the moneyline is a little too generous for the Cardinals. I see this being more of a shut out, and at the very least a game dominated by St Louis.

Pick: St. Louis Cardinals (-107)