St. Louis at Pittsburgh MLB Betting Guide

After beating their division rivals 4-1 on Sunday, the Pittsburgh Pirates will look to take another game from the St. Louis Cardinals when they square off on Tuesday in the first night game of 2016 at PNC Park. Southpaw Jonathon Niese will make his Pittsburgh debut, while St. Louis counters with right-hander Michael Wacha. Now, let’s find out which team will get the ‘W’ in this contest. Find out the latest MLB betting odds here.

St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates MLB Betting Guide

When:  Tuesday, April 05 – 7:05 PM EST Where: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania TV: FS-M Radio: SiriusXM Radio Line: TBA TOTAL: TBA

Why Bet the St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals want revenge and won two more games than the Pirates a year ago. Michael Wacha was smacked around this spring in Grapefruit League action and lost two of his final three starts last season as the Cards gave up eight runs twice. Wacha however has added a cutter to his arsenal of pitches and will be free of workload restrictions in 2016 for the first time in his career.

Why Bet the Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates are playing at home and k now they need to win every division game they can, starting with their season opener. Niese will make his Pirates debut after coming to Pittsburgh in an offseason trade for longtime Pirates second baseman Neil Walker. The veteran left-hander went 9-10 with a 4.13 ERA in 33 games, including 29 starts. The December trade for Niese ended his 11-year tenure with the New York Mets.

Expert Prediction and Pick

Johnny Niese struggled this spring, in giving up at least four earned runs in three of his four Grapefruit League starts while getting smacked around for 14 runs on 18 hits over 15 spring innings. Michael Wacha gave up eight earned runs over his first four spring starts (12.2 innings), but tossed five scoreless innings in his final spring start. I’m going to go with the Cards to get the road win in this affair mostly because of Jonathan Niese’s struggles and the fact that Wacha, when he’s on, is one of the best pitchers in the game today.

My final score prediction is St. Louis 6 Pittsburgh 3