Looking for your daily dose of baseball action? Well, tonight is just the night for you as the National League Division Series kicks off to fully satisfy your cravings. Our first game features the Chicago Cubs and No.1 team in the majors, St. Louis Cardinals, squaring off for the first meeting of their best-of-five series at Busch Stadium.
Following after, Game 1 between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers commences at Dodger Stadium for what’s definitely going to be a promising showdown you wouldn’t want to miss as well.
Read on below for a quick breakdown of these two highly-anticipated matchups. And if you’re craving for other sports action, check out some of our NFL Week 5 previews: Cardinals vs. Lions, Seahawks vs. Bengals and Rams vs. Packers. Enjoy.
[sc:MLBArticles ]Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals (6:45 PM ET)
Line: Chicago Cubs (-104) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (-106); total: 6.5 – view all MLB lines
[sc:MLB240banner ]Jon Lester (11-12, 3.34 ERA), who takes the mound tonight for the Cubs, will try to follow an excellent wild-card performance by Jake Arrieta. That may just be the case as the 31-year-old lefty has a pretty solid playoff pedigree: 6-4 with a 2.57 ERA across 14 appearances (12 starts). And against the Cardinals this year, Lester holds a 1-3 record with a 2.59 ERA and .216 opponents’ batting average through five starts.
Speaking of the Cardinals, they’ll be countering with John Lackey (13-10, 2.77 ERA), who is Lester’s former teammate. Lackey leads all active pitchers with 117 postseason frames and tonight’s start will mark his 19th playoff start, which will also be the most among all active pitchers. He’s had a huge share of success this season at Busch Stadium, owning a 9-4 win-loss mark with an unforgiving 1.93 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in over 17 turns.
Chicago is 5-5 in its last five games with Lester starting. St. Louis, meanwhile, is 4-6 in Lackey’s past 10 turns.
Click here to see our full preview of this game.
Writer’s Prediction
The Cards (-106) takes care of business in Game 1 with a thrilling 3-1 triumph.
New York Mets vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (9:45 PM ET)
Line: New York Mets (+170) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (-200); total: 5.5 – view all MLB lines
Jacob deGrom (14-8, 2.54 ERA) has turned into a bona fide ace for the Mets this season. This reason is exactly why he gets the nod for tonight’s playoff-opener. deGrom will have a lot of momentum heading into this game after successfully capping off the regular season with bang in his last start versus the Nats. He tossed four scoreless innings and added seven K’s to his name for the resounding 1-0 victory.
Moreover, the 2014 NL Rookie of the Year pitched really well in his lone start against the Dodgers this season, holding them scoreless on just two hits in 7 2/3 innings of work to capture the thrilling 3-2 triumph.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, will oppose with their own ace in Clayton Kershaw, who is 16-7 with a 2.13 ERA. Kershaw, the three-time Cy Young Award winner, is only 1-5 with a dismal 5.12 ERA across 11 career postseason appearances (eight starts). But he’ll take comfort on the fact that he’s been on tear in his previous 17 starts with a sizzling 1.22 ERA under his belt.
New York is 4-1 in deGrom’s last five road starts. Los Angeles, on the other hand, is 5-1 in its previous six games with Kershaw starting.
Click here to see our full preview of this contest.
Writer’s Prediction
The Dodgers (-200) take advantage of their home crowd and a solid effort from Kershaw to garner the commanding 2-0 win.
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