Sports Betting Overview
It has been a long time since the online casino baseball fans in Pittsburgh have seen their team in first place after the All-Star break. The Pittsburgh Pirates went on a stretch where they won seven of 10, including a current two-game winning streak, and took over first place in the NL Central from the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. The MLB standings show that the Brewers are playing well, it is just that the Pirates are playing better. Now the Pirates want to put some room between themselves and the rest of the NL Central, and a good way to do that is to keep beating up on the Cincinnati Reds in this current series between the two teams. MLB fans are no longer calling the Pirates a fluke, they are simply referring to the Pirates as one of the better teams in baseball.
The Cincinnati Reds are in about as good of a position as they can be right now. They are trailing the NL Central lead by four games, but they are currently playing the division leaders in a series. Cincinnati showed such promise last year that big things were expected from them this year. But the play of the Pirates, Cardinals and Brewers has left the Reds in the dust. If the Reds want to make it a four-way race in the NL Central, then they need to take a couple of games from the Pirates in this series. But with the way the Pirates have been playing, that just does not seem plausible.
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates are pitching well, hitting well and are a terror on the base paths. The team speed in Pittsburgh is incredible, and it is definitely a catalyst to the Pirates’ success. One of the Pittsburgh pitching success stories for this season, Jeff Karstens, will take the mound for this game. Karstens is 8-4 on the season with a 2.34 ERA. He has incredible control and is 5-0 in his last eight starts. Karstens is working on his best year as a pro and is showing a lot of promise for the future of the Pirates.
Cincinnati Reds
Johnny Cueto takes the mound for the Reds, and he is becoming much better at giving the Reds a chance to win. He is 5-3 on the season with a 2.01 ERA, but he has not been getting any run support. In his last four starts he is 0-1, but he has not allowed more than three earned runs in any of those games and he is pitching on into the seventh and eighth innings. If the Reds can get Cueto some runs to work with, then he can hold down a lead for them. But the Reds are 4-6 in their last 10 games and are having serious problems scoring runs.
The Bottom Line
When a team like Cincinnati is having problems scoring runs, then a pitcher like Pittsburgh’s Jeff Karstens is the last thing the Reds want to see. Johnny Cueto will keep the game close, but Karstens is more than able to shut down a struggling Cincinnati batting order and making this game a foregone conclusion by the sixth inning.
Pick: Pittsburgh Pirates
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