Jason Storm
Free Picks Newsletter Lead Researcher
120-80-1 Overall Record

MLB: Saint Louis Cardinals (+165) vs Philadelphia Phillies (-175) Over – Under 7

This is what about MLB Playoffs is all about. If you haven’t been watching, you’ve been missing some great excitement. Baseball’s postseason is equivalent to NBA’s playoffs. The crowd is electric, every pitch matters, and you couldn’t ask for a better stage… Or Could we?

I don’t remember being more excited about any divisional round playoff game than the game tonight. You have Chris Carpenter starting for the Cardinals. Carpenter has been this teams ace for years. He is Cy Young winner in 2005 and the Cy Young runner up in 2009. 2004-2006 Carpenter was one of the most dominate pitchers in the league. He went 51-18! In 2007 he got hurt and needed Tommy John Surgery and took 2 full seasons to rebound. In 2009, Carpenter came back better than ever posting a career best with a 2.24 ERA!

This year, he has had another successful year posting a 3.45 ERA with 191 strikeouts. What needs to be noted is how much better he has been lately. Carpenter was the best pitcher in baseball in the month of September. He went 3-0 posting an ERA of 2.15, a WHIP of 0.98. The most impressive news is batters are just hitting .219 against him that month.

I know when you see the names on this Phillies offense you think they is a high scoring team, but that’s not really the case. But statistically it’s an average offense. The Phillies have scored just 713 runs on the season. That’s 13th in the league. They hit just .253 as a team, tied for 16th in the league. That’s lower than the league average.

To hit Carpenter you must be better than average. Carpenter has dominated the Phillies in the regular season. He is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA! Yes, a ERA less than 0. That’s 15 innings with just 1 earned run. It was a little different in the postseason, as he went just 3 innings allowing 4 runs. However, that was on short rest, after going 9 innings in his previous start. He wasn’t at full strength, and he certainly will be today.

He counter part may be the best pitcher in baseball over the last decade. Roy Halladay is a two time Cy Young winner, and a top 5 finalist 6 times including winning it last year. He is 188-92 over his career which includes 12 years playing with a mostly bad Blue Jays team. He hasn’t had an ERA over 3 in over 5 season. This year he has just a 2.35 ERA. That’s the lowest in his 14 year career.

This guy is unreal. Halladay has 8 complete games this season. Like Carpenter, Halladay has been even better in September allowing opponents to hit just .216 against him and an ERA of 1.70! In the regular season, the Cardinals hit just .200 against him. He was just as good in his first start of the postseason against this same Cardinals team. He went 8 innings allowing just 3 hits. That’s a batting average of just .125.

This is a great pitching match up. Both guys are going to go deep into this game. I fully expect an amazing pitchers duel and the first to 3 runs will win this game.

Take Under 7