If your favorite baseball team isn't playing tonight, make the games more interesting by betting on MLB odds at BookMaker Sportsbook! This is the only online wagering outlet that offers early MLB moneylines, runlines and totals. First pitch for the game between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals is scheduled for Wednesday, May 17, 2017, at 8:15 p.m. ET at Busch Stadium. The matchup can be seen live on ESPN.
Unable to take advantage of recent slides by the Orioles and Yankees, the Boston Red Sox remain in the middle of the pack in the AL East. The St. Louis Cardinals, on the other hand, started the season off slowly, but have bounced back in a big way and are using the Cubs’ lackluster start to buoy themselves to the top of the pack in the NL Central. These two teams will close out a brief two game set in primetime on Wednesday night.
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ODDS ANALYSIS
The Cubs snapped the Cards’ six game winning streak on Friday night, but St. Louis bounced right back to take two of three in the series and improve to 8-1 over their last nine contests.
After starting out 3-9, the Cardinals have gone 18-6 in their last 24 games and they’ve found their success on the strength of their pitching. They’re getting enough offense—as they’ve traditionally done—but are ranked No. 7 in team ERA.
Interestingly, defense hasn’t been there for the Cards either. The Cardinals’ Way has long been good pitching, great defense and timely hitting. The team fell out of contention last year with poor defense and sub-par pitching, but stayed close with a good offense focused on plenty of power.
This team is a bit of a hybrid. They still lack the defense that made this team so good for so many years, but they’re getting away with it as the pitching has improved. The starting staff is solid top to bottom, with Adam Wainwright the only possible exception, and the bullpen has rebounded nicely from a slow start.
For the offense, the homers aren’t leading the league—or even close to it like last year—and the offense sits right in the middle of the pack.
Interestingly, Boston’s offense ranks dead last in home runs in the American League and third from the bottom in all of baseball.
The Sox destroyed baseball with a dynamic offense last year, but the group is just not the same without David Ortiz even if the rest of the names are all very good.
PROBABLE PITCHERS
The series finale in St. Louis features a pretty interesting pitching matchup with Rick Porcello matching up with Mike Leake.
Porcello took a giant step forward last year and earned the Cy Young Award for his efforts. It’s Leake who, so far, has been the biggest surprise on the mound of the year, at least amongst those veteran arms who we thought we knew.
Leake has thrown a quality start each time out. He looked a bit more hittable in his last couple starts. He’s allowed three home runs over his last two starts and has given up five runs in 13 innings. Before that, he threw 33.1 innings, giving up only five runs, five walks and no home runs.
He pitched to a 1.35 ERA in April and even with more human-like performances in May, he’s still got an impressive 1.94 ERA and the Cardinals have won four of his seven starts.
Porcello’s also been tripped up a bit by the longball, like Leake. He’s allowed a home run in four straight games and nine bombs in eight games this season. He’s been okay so far. He’s not pitching like a Cy Young Award winner yet this year, but he’s got a respectable 4.01 ERA though he is just 2-5.
In his last start, he allowed five runs to the Rays and has had a couple clunkers mixed in with some very strong starts this year. Consistency has been an issue for the right-hander who has done a good job keeping the ball in the zone in his last three starts—with no walks—but sometimes has lost command within the zone, leading to 21 hits in those starts.
Porcello has faced the Cardinals twice in his career, allowing five runs—three earned—in 12.2 innings. Leake has faced the Sox twice in his career, as well. He’s allowed seven runs, all earned, on 16 hits in 12 innings.
LIVE BETTING
Just when you think Boston has finally got everything put together, they stumble once again.
The Red Sox had the best offense last year. They have Chris Sale dominating and the reigning Cy Young Award winner in the rotation. The bullpen, meanwhile, has been a real strength of this team with a cumulative 2.39 ERA.
If the Sox can grab a lead—or tie—into the seventh inning. That’s a really good sign. Craig Kimbrel has converted 11 saves chances and has a 1.08 ERA and Joe Kelly has a 1.89 ERA setting him up.
That’s all fine and dandy, but can this team get to the bullpen with the lead? The answer, of course, is not often enough.
We saw Boston’s offense break out against Minnesota last weekend, scoring 28 runs in two games, but they then went on a run of three straight games of just four runs.
This team hasn’t strung together more than two straight wins since April 18. While St. Louis is getting solid play in every facet of the game right now, the Sox are not. Every game—or at least every few games—some part of this team is faltering.
QUICK PICK
If you look on paper, even with the starting pitching injuries, the Red Sox are the better team, yet it’s the Cardinals that are atop their division and in the midst of playing some great baseball and it’s the Sox that cannot get a hot streak going.
The Cardinals will be at home which, over the last couple seasons, hasn’t always been a good thing, but with St. Louis playing hot baseball and the Sox, well, not, I’m going with St. Louis in any game Boston doesn’t have Chris Sale starting.
Look for the Cardinals to do enough to get the win, again.
MLB Odds: Cardinals 6, Red Sox 4
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