Jaime Garcia hasn't had a single bad start since his return from Tommy John surgery. That should be music to the ears of live bettors who are prepared to back the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
PITCHING MATCHUP
Garcia just keeps rolling right along. He isn't doing anything incredibly special, but he isn't being asked to do so either. With more run support, he could be 9-0 right now, but he has to settle for a 3-4 mark instead.
The southpaw has topped out at 102 pitches, but he has only had one start in which he has averaged more than 15.2 pitches per inning.
Wily Peralta is back from his oblique injury which kept him out for over two months, and we're not convinced that he should be pitching for the Brew Crew. The righty has rarely hit 90 MPH on his fastball, and he has been tagged for eight runs in just 9.1 innings as a result.
Peralta has only thrown a total of 160 pitches in two starts since his return, and live bettors should take note of that pitch count of his early on. If the Cardinals are working counts as they normally do, know that the Milwaukee bullpen is very likely to be called upon early and often.
ADVANCED STATS
The Cardinals really aren't anything special offensively, yet the reason they continue to be a huge factor for live bettors is due to their defensive stats. They have a defensive rating of 33.0 per FanGraphs, fourth best in the majors, and it shows.
The only item which concerns us for live bettors is the place of Brandon Moss is the outfield. He's a negative defender from the average outfielder, and he is replacing the injured Matt Holliday. Jon Jay is also on the DL for a wrist problem, which further lowers the value of this defense.
Garcia, who has allowed a lot of fly balls, could end up seeing a few more drop in Milwaukee than usual. That's not something which live bettors are generally going to think about, but one ball that would've been caught by Jay or Holliday that ends up in the gap could change the entire complexion of this game.
TALKING BULLPENS
No team does a better job of stranding runners which reach base than St. Louis at 80.2 percent. Few do it worse than the Brewers at 72.0 percent.
The Cardinals are even better in their bullpen, stranding a wildly high 83.7 percent of runners which reach base, and though the Brewers have the sixth best pen in the bigs per WAR, they are leaving 73.3 percent of their runners onboard.
The big concern for Milwaukee is allowing big innings in relief. The pen is allowing a whopping 11.2 percent of all fly balls to leave the yard, and though theoretically, that number should be getting better, there are just a lot of gas cans down in that pen who have to scare the wits out of live bettors.
Neal Cotts is perhaps the biggest culprit with seven dingers allowed in 43 innings of work, but Corey Knebel, who is being used more now than Jonathan Broxton has been traded, is also in bad shape with the long ball with four bombs allowed in just 30 innings this year.
The MLB lines for this Saturday contest will first be released by BookMaker Sportsbook. Gamble on the game between every half inning with BookMaker's live betting feature. Along with an adjusted in-game moneyline, you can wager on what will happen in the next at-bat or how many runs will be scored in the next inning. Live betting is the most exciting way to play!
Need to fund your account before the big game but don't have your computer? No problem! BookMaker Sportsbook now offers a mobile betting cashier so you can deposit money directly from your smartphone. Don't miss out on getting paid because you couldn't bet. Click here, and deposit at BookMaker now! The ballgame pitting the St. Louis Cardinals versus the Milwaukee Brewers will commence Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 7:10 p.m. ET at Miller Park in Milwaukee, WI. You can watch the contest live on FOX Sports 1.
