MLB odds: Brewers-Cardinals

By Jordan Walters
WagerWeb.com Contributing Writer

Sports Betting at WagerWeb Online Sportsbook

The Milwaukee Brewers aren’t even in first place in the NL Central, but they’ve looked like the class of the National League in recent months.

After Monday’s win, which ended St. Louis’ five-game winning streak, the Brew Crew have won five games in a row and are an NL-best 35-19 since May 20. In addition, Milwaukee has homered in 17 consecutive games (two shy of the franchise record).

The fact that the Brewers went in and beat St. Louis on Monday with their fifth starter (Seth McClung) should scare the rest of the league.

"There's a good feeling knowing that you have the talent to win every day," said manager Ned Yost.  "Our players feel that. It's more of a relaxing feeling than anything else that you know you can compete on an everyday basis. You can put guys out there and they're pretty talented guys.

"We're playing better. It all just boils around good pitching, for the most part, good defense, timely hitting. We've gotten all of that lately. We're playing much, much better on the road.”

The Brewers will have to beat St. Louis ace Kyle Lohse tonight to extend their winning streak to six. Lohse is 12-2 with an ERA of 3.35, and the Cards have 11 wins in Lohse’s last 12 starts. He has not lost a start since May 8 and has lost only two games in his past 32 starts, dating back to July 2007. In addition, Lohse has allowed just four runs over his past four starts while going seven innings in all of those games.

Milwaukee will activate right-hander Jeff Suppan from the 15-day DL to start tonight. Suppan (5-6, 4.71 ERA) is 4-0 with a 1.48 ERA in four starts vs. the Cardinals with the Brewers, yielding five runs in 30 1-3 innings. The former Cardinal limited St. Louis to one run in seven innings of his lone start against them this year, a 5-3 victory May 11 at Miller Park.

 

Suppan was on the DL with joint irritation in the elbow of his throwing arm. He allowed 18 earned runs on 30 hits over 15 2/3 innings in his last four starts before hitting the DL.

He’ll need to pitch carefully to St. Louis third baseman Troy Glaus, who is 21-for-40 (.525) with five homers and 12 RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak and 12-for-36 with three homers against Suppan.

The Cardinals are -141 money line favorites on WagerWeb.com to even the series tonight.