T.M. Selection: St Louis Cardinals.

I like the St Louis Cardinals to win this game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday. The Cardinals haven't looked good in their games lately but they won the last game of their series against the Braves, avoiding the sweep there, and I think they are going to string some wins together now that they have bounced back a bit. The Phillies have looked good lately, winning 3/4 of their previous 4 games. They also took 2/3 games against the Cardinals just last weekend and I think the Cardinals still have that fresh in their minds. I expect the Cardinals to step up here and take this 1st game of the series with it being back in their own ballpark. Adam Wainwright (6-6, 3.26 ERA) is up for the Cardinals here and he has been great this year. He just gave up 4 runs in his most recent start and he has looked a bit shaky lately too but he has had great numbers throughout his career and he has been putting up similar numbers here all year, I expect him to bounce back in this start and pitch a better game. His previous start was also against the Phillies so I expect him to come with a better gameplan here and he has also been a lot better all year in his home starts so I expect a good performance from him here. Zack Wheeler (7-4, 2.66 ERA) is up for the Phillies here and he has been really good this year too. He gave up no runs in his most recent start but he was also looking shaky in his starts right before that and he has put up better numbers in their home games all year. He hasn't been great in road games this year with some of his worst starts of the year coming in road games and I think he is going to have another bad road start here since he just saw this lineup in his most recent start. I think the Cardinals have a bit of momentum from that late win over the Braves and I expect that to carry over here. I like the Cardinals to win this game.

T.M. Prediction: 5-2 Cardinals.