PITTSBURGH -102 over St. Louis
Regular readers of this space are aware that we’re not high on the Pirates or Jeff Locke but we’ll set that aside here because value is value and in that respect, St. Louis may be falsely favored here. Locke is coming off an easy 89-pitch, 2-hit, eight inning shutout over the Indians. Locke has also allowed just two jacks over his last nine starts and none over his last five. He’s had 23 groundball outs against just 10 fly-outs over his last 2 starts and his overall groundball rate is now up to 53% and 57% over his last five starts. Furthermore, Locke has completely stymied these Cardinals hitters by allowing just 23 hits in 103 AB’s for an oppBA of .223. Of those 23 hits, just two left the yard and four went for two bases. To recap, current Cardinals are hitting .223 against Locke over 103 combined AB’s with just six extra base hits. Locke has a 2.64 ERA at home over 10 starts and has lost just twice at PNC Park all year.
Regular readers of this space are aware that we’re not high on the Pirates or Jeff Locke but we’ll set that aside here because value is value and in that respect, St. Louis may be falsely favored here. Locke is coming off an easy 89-pitch, 2-hit, eight inning shutout over the Indians. Locke has also allowed just two jacks over his last nine starts and none over his last five. He’s had 23 groundball outs against just 10 fly-outs over his last 2 starts and his overall groundball rate is now up to 53% and 57% over his last five starts. Furthermore, Locke has completely stymied these Cardinals hitters by allowing just 23 hits in 103 AB’s for an oppBA of .223. Of those 23 hits, just two left the yard and four went for two bases. To recap, current Cardinals are hitting .223 against Locke over 103 combined AB’s with just six extra base hits. Locke has a 2.64 ERA at home over 10 starts and has lost just twice at PNC Park all year.
