Chicago WS (Floyd) +115 at St. Louis (Westbrook) O/U 8.5 
Recommendation: Chicago

St. Louis starter Jake Westbrook has been an absolute disaster area for a month now; 0-4 with an ERA approaching 8.00 in his last six starts while giving up 48 hits in just 31 innings of work.  He’s been pitching with a cut on the middle finger of his throwing hand; a lingering issue that has clearly affected his mound presence.  The Cardinals bullpen behind Westbrook has been struggling mightily, ranked in the bottom quartile of the majors in ERA, blown saves and losses. The White Sox had scored 25 runs in their previous three games prior to getting blanked last night – their high octane lineup has been clicking on all cylinders for weeks, ranked #6 out of 30 MLB teams in runs scored this year.   There’s absolutely no reason to think that Chicago won’t be able to tee off on Westbrook and the bullpen behind him tonight; producing runs in bunches.

Chicago’s Gavin Floyd hasn’t been any better than Westbrook, allowing 30 earned runs in just 24.2 innings of work in his last five starts.  Floyd’s biggest issue has been the gopher ball; giving up ten home runs during that five start span.  But Floyd adjusted and corrected a “minor mechanical flaw” in his delivery in a throwing session this weekend.  “I worked on something small and it feels amazing.  It’s something that was able to free me up and I feel really good about it.”  Facing an ice cold Cardinals lineup – a lineup that has produced two runs or less in each of their last five ballgames – with a rested and surprisingly effective bullpen behind Floyd to close out the game without shenanigans, look for the White Sox to take yet another interleague series with a victory here.