National League Championship series begins tonight as the Los Angeles Dodgers travel to Busch Stadium to take on the St Louis Cardinals. First pitch is scheduled for an 8:37 PM (Eastern) start time and the game will be televised on FOX.
Current Odds
Los Angeles -131
St Louis +121
Over/ Under: 7.5 U -120
Analysis: The Dodgers surged into playoff contention with a ridiculous 42-8 stretch and haven't let up, taking out the Atlanta Braves in four games in the NL Division Series. SS Hanley Ramirez batted .500 and RF Yasiel Puig .471 while Carl Crawford (three) and Juan Uribe (two) combined to hit five homers as the Dodgers set an NL postseason series record with .333 team batting average versus Atlanta. Zach Greinke gets the ball for the Dodgers tonight, after going 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA in the regular season. He did take the lone loss vs the Braves in the NLCS. He was 7-2 on the road but his ERA (3.21) was more than a run worst and batting average against (.263 versus .207) was substantially higher than at Dodger Stadium.
St. Louis advanced to its third straight NLCS - and eighth since 2000 - by outlasting Pittsburgh in five games behind ace Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals are now 8-1 in elimination games since 2011. RF Carlos Beltran has been immense in the postseason with career totals of 16 homers and 31 RBIs in 39 games, but the Cardinals need more from 2B Matt Carpenter, who was 1-for-19 in the NLDS after collecting a league-high 199 hits in the regular season. Joe Kelly will start the opener for St. Louis, after going 10-5 with a 2.69 ERA during the regular season, including 10-2 as a starter after he was inserted into the rotation in early July. Kelly was outstanding at home with a 5-1 record in eight starts, including 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers on Aug. 6.
Pick: I will be going with the Dodgers in this one. Zach Greinke has been awesome for them this year and would like to atone for LA's lone loss in the playoffs this year. The Cardinals may be a bit flat coming off the huge series with Pittsburgh and Joe Kelly will have a hard time slowing down a very hot LA offense. No Rust for the Dodgers as they take game 1 here.
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