NY Mets (Leiter) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Morris)
A very nice pitchers matchup here but I have to lean to the home team and I will give you a few good reasons.
Al Leiter takes the hill for the Mets here and has a very solid record of 3-0 in 5 starts with an ERA of 2.35 and a WHIP of 1.43. Despite that nice record he has been anything but impressive allowing 6.4 walks per nine innings pitched and a poor strike out to walk ratio of 0.56. He has been solid against the Cardinals with a 4-2 record, ERA of 3.23 and a WHIP of 0.993 in 7 games against them.
Matt Morris will make the start for the Cardinals and he has been impressive despite is record. He has an ERA of 2.45 and a strong WHIP of 1.02, he is allowing just 2.45 base on balls per nine innings and a strike out to walk ratio of 2.9. He has been solid when starting against the Mets with an ERA of 2.93 and a WHIP of 1.140. He is coming off a very solid start against the Reds pitching 7 innings and throwing just 73 pitches, while Leiter has thrown over 100 pitches in all but his first start.
The Mets offense is anything but impressive with a team batting average of .229 when facing right handers and just 3.5 runs a game. When they take the field to play defense they have been equally unimpressive commiting a whopping 27 errors already this year while giving up 4 runs on average a game. When they face right handed starters on the road they are a meager 2-7 and just 1-6 as a road dog. The bullpen has been shaky also on the road with an ERA of 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.778.
The Cardinals have been killing left handed starters and that does not bode well for Leiter who is experiencing control problems. They are averaging a whopping 8.3 runs a game when they face southpaws with an impressive .317 team batting average and an even more impressive on base percentage of .433. On defense they have been as solid giving up just 3.6 runs a game and commiting a meager 10 errors so far this year. The bullpen has been shaky but Morris has gone deep in all of his starts this year averaging 7.24 innings per start.
Playing St Louis -140
A very nice pitchers matchup here but I have to lean to the home team and I will give you a few good reasons.
Al Leiter takes the hill for the Mets here and has a very solid record of 3-0 in 5 starts with an ERA of 2.35 and a WHIP of 1.43. Despite that nice record he has been anything but impressive allowing 6.4 walks per nine innings pitched and a poor strike out to walk ratio of 0.56. He has been solid against the Cardinals with a 4-2 record, ERA of 3.23 and a WHIP of 0.993 in 7 games against them.
Matt Morris will make the start for the Cardinals and he has been impressive despite is record. He has an ERA of 2.45 and a strong WHIP of 1.02, he is allowing just 2.45 base on balls per nine innings and a strike out to walk ratio of 2.9. He has been solid when starting against the Mets with an ERA of 2.93 and a WHIP of 1.140. He is coming off a very solid start against the Reds pitching 7 innings and throwing just 73 pitches, while Leiter has thrown over 100 pitches in all but his first start.
The Mets offense is anything but impressive with a team batting average of .229 when facing right handers and just 3.5 runs a game. When they take the field to play defense they have been equally unimpressive commiting a whopping 27 errors already this year while giving up 4 runs on average a game. When they face right handed starters on the road they are a meager 2-7 and just 1-6 as a road dog. The bullpen has been shaky also on the road with an ERA of 5.00 and a WHIP of 1.778.
The Cardinals have been killing left handed starters and that does not bode well for Leiter who is experiencing control problems. They are averaging a whopping 8.3 runs a game when they face southpaws with an impressive .317 team batting average and an even more impressive on base percentage of .433. On defense they have been as solid giving up just 3.6 runs a game and commiting a meager 10 errors so far this year. The bullpen has been shaky but Morris has gone deep in all of his starts this year averaging 7.24 innings per start.
Playing St Louis -140
