We’ve had a pitching change in San Francisco. Here’s an edited version of my Sportsmemo Newsletter Best Bet which will also serve as a Free Play for Friday. Good Luck tonight!
Friday, May 29th
St Louis @ San Francisco (Piniero vs Cain)
Recommendation: Take the Giants
San Francisco’s Matt Cain has finally turned the corner into a consistent dominator. Cain has even outpitched teammate Tim Lincecum through the first two months of the season, the Giants best starter. He’s thrown seven quality outings in his nine previous starts in ’09.
Most importantly, the Giants spotty offense has finally started to produce for him after two years that Cain spent as arguably the most hard luck pitcher in baseball. San Francisco has scored four runs or more in seven of Cain’s nine previous starts, and they are 6-1 in those games. Coming off their first series sweep of the season against Atlanta earlier in the week, in which the offense pounded out 18 runs, the Giants are a team on the uptick right now.
This line is very short because the Cardinals are expected to get a pair of key bats back into the lineup this evening. Ryan Ludwick is coming off the DL, expected to get the start, and Rick Ankiel, who’s played only once since May 4th could be back in action as well.
Even with either or both of those guys back in the lineup, St Louis isn’t likely to score runs in bunches here. The Cards attack has been anemic for weeks, scoring just 84 runs in 24 games this month (3.5 per contest), held to three runs or less in 13 of those 24 games.
Cardinals starter Joel Piniero is pitching a day ahead of schedule after Kyle Lohse was scratched with a bruise on his forearm. Piniero has been lit up in both previous career starts against the Giants: 0-2 with an 8.10 ERA. He’s allowed four runs or more and taken the loss in each of his last three road starts, a trend that we can expect to continue this evening. Take San Francisco -120
