Roy Halladay is just two wins shy of his third consecutive 20-win season, and considering that he only has two starts left in the season, he is more driven than ever to pick up a win. Will he reach number 19 tonight against the Cardinals?
Many fans and MLB bettors may have envisioned this matchup back
in the spring as a possible National League playoff preview. It still may be, but the betting odds are stacked
against the St. Louis Cardinals who are going in need of a minor miracle to
make that happen.
St. Louis
begins the final 10 games on the schedule Monday night (7:05 PM ET) with the
series finale with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cardinals have almost zero chance of catching Milwaukee in the National League Central
Division race.
The Brewers enter the
week 6.5 games ahead of the Cards and a magic number of four to raise the first
National League Central flag in team history.
Tony La Russa and the Redbirds are still within reach of the
NL wild card, however, just 3.5 games behind Atlanta in that chase. Putting a realistic
spin on it, an 8-2 closing run by the Cards could be enough to catch the Atlanta Braves
who have been struggling lately.
But getting the first of those eight wins will be very, very
difficult. St. Louis will have to face reigning
NL Cy Young winner Roy Halladay (18-5, 2.34) who is a -205 favorite for
Monday's game. The Cardinals counter
with Kyle Lohse (13-8, 3.62) and MLB betting shops are in agreement with a
7.5-run total.
It's a waste of time to go over Halladay's stats. He's simply among the best of his generation or
any other. The most important statistic
if you're betting the game is 45-18. That's what the Phillies are since Halladay joined their rotation before
the 2010 season, 47-19 if you throw in his postseason efforts.
The home crowd at Citizens
Bank Park
will be seeing Halladay for the first time in over a month, and he's looking
for his first win here since the end of July. He's two shy of a third consecutive 20-win season, and this is going to
be his next to last start of 2011.
Lohse is trying to at least end the season on a high note to
mimic the hot start he got off to the first two months. June through August was pretty much a
struggle for the 33-year-old, and La Russa has been giving him extra rest to
try get Lohse back on track. This is his
first start in a week, and just the second in September.
He didn't pitch badly against the Phils in St. Louis earlier this season in a game that
saw Cliff Lee blank the Cardinals for a 4-0 win. He's had his trouble, however,
against four big bats in this order. The
quartet of Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, Hunter Pence and Placido Polanco are 37
for 112 (.330) with Howard and Ibanez combining for 5 HR.
St. Louis
inched ahead 4-3 in the season series between these two clubs with Sunday's 5-0
shutout. The final score marked the
second UNDER of the first three games in this set and left the UNDER 4-3 in the
last seven played in Philly.
Halladay and Lohse matched up in this park a little more
than 16 months ago with Doc and the Phils coming away 7-2 winners in May 2010.
Taking a Chance: This
will be the 14th time this season that Halladay is priced with a -200 money
line or higher; he's 8-5 in the previous 13, but just 1-3 the last four. The Cardinals are definitely motivated to
win, but so is Halladay who wants another 20-win season added to his list of
career achievements. Doc & the Phils -205.