Atlanta at St. Louis

Here we have two teams that had their problems in the first half but are now back on-track. Atlanta has won five straight and seven of eight. St. Louis has won seven in a row. This one comes down to home field advantage. Over the past three seasons, Atlanta has won 5 of 9 at home but just 2 of 6 here in St. Louis. Cardinals bats have come alive during this streak as they are scoring 6.1 per game. At home their bullpen is excellent (3.29 ERA) while Atlanta's is poor on the road (5.15 ERA). Atlanta has been scoring heavily of late but allowing nearly six runs per game. St. Louis has been allowing just 2.7 per game of late and 4.1 per game at home on the season. Jeff Weaver has been terrible for St. Louis this season but his counterpart, Horacio Ramirez, is just 8-20 on the road the past two seasons. During the second half of the season over the past two years, he's 5-14 overall and 0-7 vs. high scoring teams (4.8+ runs per game). Weaver, on the other hand, is 22-8 vs. high scoring teams. Road teams at +125 to -125 with a bad bullpen that blows 38% or more of their save opportunities facing a starting pitcher whose ERA is 6.20 or worse are just 25-71 (26%) since 1997. Also, favorites of -125 to -175 starting a pitcher whose WHIP is 1.450 to 1.550 with a hot bullpen whose ERA is under 1.50 the last 5 games are 72-22 (77%) over the past ten years. Cards here.