Monday Baseball Wagering Action

Besides a makeup game on tap today, three other games are on the baseball docket. Each has its own story to tell, here is what each looks like tonight to the sports bettor on a sleepy Monday.

Cardinals in control

St. Louis (39-31, +2.7 units) has reeled of three consecutive wins and eight of last 11, to take over first place in the NL Central. The Cards bats crushed Kansas City pitching for 29 runs on 37 hits in sweeping the Royals. The Cardinals were led by, who else, Albert Pujols, who abused K.C., with three home runs and 10 runs batted in. “It’s nothing special. I’m just seeing good pitches and hitting them,” Pujols said. That’s what Kansas City pitchers thought also.

New York (34-33, -2.3 units) has lost four series in a row, in compiling 4-8 record and will look to turn things around quickly. Mets pitching has been in the tank, conceding a hair over six runs per game and when they get a better effort like Johan Santana provided Saturday, the bats go deathly silent in 3-1 loss. The only good news comes from the fact New York is 8-0 having lost four of their last five games this season. They will send a shaky Tim Redding (0-2, 6.27) to the mound.

The Redbirds are slight -108 favorites with total Un9.5 at DiamondSportsbook.com. They are 31-19 vs. teams with a good bullpen, whose ERA is 3.75 or better. Todd Wellemeyer (6-6, 5.36) gets the call and New York is 11-17 (-17.4 Units) against the money line vs. an NL starting pitcher whose ERA is 5.20 to 5.70 over the last three seasons. ESPN2 will have the coverage at 7:10 Eastern.

Colorado is Hot Hot Hot

The 1970’s punk band, New York Dolls, have reunited recently with some of its original members, including front man David Johansen. For a time in the late 80’s, Johansen, repackaged himself as pseudonym Buster Poindexter and was part of the Saturday Night Live house band. He later recorded his one and only hit, which completely describes the Colorado Rockies at the moment - Hot Hot Hot. Colorado (36-33, +4.8 units) is on 16-1 roll to move into third place in the NL West, picking up +17.7 units of profit in the process. The Rockies are 16-4 in June and will start Aaron Cook (6-3, 4.23) against a team who had almost as hot.

The Los Angeles Angels (36-31, +5.5 units) had won seven straight before losing last two games to cross-town rival Dodgers. The Angels will start Matt Palmer (6-0, 4.13) who has won just once in last four starts. The Angels are hoping the journeyman Palmer can keep changing speeds and be effective and improve Angels record to 51-31 having lost two of their last three games.
The Halos are -113 money line favorites and Cook and Rockies are 6-0 in road games after two or more consecutive wins.

Bay Area Battle

The Oakland A’s (30-38, -5.8 units) are happy to return home after 3-6 interleague road trip, which started with three losses against tonight’s opponent San Francisco. The A’s are a tremendous 73-36 at home in interleague action and are keeping fingers crossed rookie Trevor Cahill (4-5, 3.89) can help turn around their fortunes.

San Francisco (37-31, +6.3) has shown multiple personalities of late, sweeping Oakland and Texas, while being swept by the Angels in the middle grouping of last three series, all at home. The Giants are 13-19 on the road and 18-38 after six or more consecutive home games since the start of 2007 campaign. Struggling Jonathan Sanchez 2-7, 5.43) will climb the hill for San Fran, who are +139 underdogs.

Oakland took the series over San Diego over the weekend; however is miserable 6-17 having won two of three in 2009.