MLB Game Prediction: The Milwaukee Brewers will attempt to sweep things up when they play in the final game of their four-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals in Busch Stadium in St. Louis tonight. The Brewers will send their best pitcher, Ben Sheets, to the mound with hopes of exiting the Gateway City unscathed. Sheets is 10-3 this season with a 2.88 ERA. The Cardinals, hoping to avoid losing a fourth straight to the Brewers will send Todd Wellemeyer to the mound looking to stop the skid. The Cardinals righthander has a 4.22 ERA to go along with a 8-4 record this season. The Brewers are now tied with the Chicago Cubs atop the NL East Central Division while the Cardinals have dropped three games back in third.
MLB Predictions Betting Line … Online oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com have installed the Brewers as -140 money line favorites to complete the sweep while odds on the Cardinals avoiding a sweep are +120 money line. The posted game total is 8-runs.
Sheets was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the middle of a four-run Brewers rally on Saturday, so he pitched only five innings, snapping Milwaukee's streak of seven consecutive quality starts. He surrendered four runs in the fourth inning, and while only two were earned because of an error by shortstop J.J. Hardy, it marked the first time an opponent scored more than twice in a single frame against Sheets since the Dodgers' six-run seventh inning on May 15.
Wellemeyer may have found something as he went on in his last outing, and the Cardinals certainly hope so. Since he sustained an elbow injury in early June, he hasn't looked like the same pitcher who was so effective in April and May. Wellemeyer relies heavily on two pitches, his fastball and his slider, so if either one is less than its best, he's going to have a hard time.
C.C. Sabathia tossed a complete-game three-hit shutout on Wednesday, as the Brewers defeated the Cardinals 3-0. The Brewers won that game as -140 favorites, while the three runs went UNDER the posted over/under (8).
Ryan Braun went 4-for-5 at the plate with a solo home run for the Brewers. Sabathia had seven strikeouts in picking up his fourth win in a row.
Braden Looper allowed one run off seven hits over five innings in suffering the loss on the for the Cardinals, who were +125 underdogs.
MLB Game Prediction: The Brewers are hot and the Cardinals are not. Go with Sheets and Milwaukee in this game…Brewers -140 ML.
