MLB World Series Game 3: Texas Rangers vs St. Louis Cardinals

MLB - 955 St. Louis Cardinals @ 956 Texas Rangers

***TRIPLE DIME PLAY***

*TOP PLAY*

(Starting Pitchers: K. Lohse vs M. Harrison)

On my WS series play on Texas, I’ve mentioned that the Rangers’ starting pitching strength is the biggest weakness of the Cardinals hitting crew. Bottom line: we have several Rangers’ “groundball pitchers” against the team that led the league in GB/FB rate and Grounded Double Plays as well.

I will now paste only M. Harrison advanced stats:

GB%/FB%:

M. Harrison: 47.5% / 32.2%

GDP’s during regular season:

M. Harrison: 30 (ranked #2)

So far in the playoffs, Harrison has made a serviceable job for the Rangers. Hit pitch count was high in both games against the Rays and Tigers (97 & 91 pitches for just 5 innings of work) but this won’t be a big issue at all as the Rangers bullpen will be ready to go. The good news is that Harrison did not allow a Home Run and his damage was limited to two runs in both games.

On the other side we have Kyle Lohse pitching for the Cardinals and I really don’t expect Lohse to be able to hold the Rangers bats on their home stadium. 

He struggled in both postseason games against the Phillies and the Brewers. Note that he was able to hold the opposing bats for the first time as did not allow any run in the first 3 innings of both games but then he was severely pounded after that!   

I have to remember that Kyle Lohse has the highest ERA of his career in the Rangers Ballpark - he has posted a 6.75 ERA there, surrendering eight home runs in just 28 innings of work! 

As you can see, I think that the Rangers have a huge edge in the starting pitching matchup.
Now into to the offensive/defensive matchups:

Josh Hamilton is hurt and he was given one day off yesterday. Even though his effectiveness won’t be the same obviously, the Rangers have now the “DH advantage” and Ron Washington can manage better this situation. However the same thing can be said about the Cardinals catcher Molina with a thumb injury.

The monumental Rangers comeback in the last game was huge for them going forward this series. I wasn’t expecting that the true is that the Rangers bats were anxious during game 2. They were chasing bad pitches time after time… Jaime Garcia almost got a career best K’s with 7 K’s and we are talking about the Rangers – they were last in the league during the regular season with 14.9% K%’s (NOTE: being last was a good thing!).

After losing 3 consecutive games in the World Series (if we count last series’ two losses against the Giants), I expect the Rangers to be more “relaxed” for tonight and “unleash” their offense.

Finally note that this game will be played in Texas so the “cold days” are gone and the Rangers bats will thank that. 

Take the Rangers in here as my Triple Dime Play. 

Pick: 5 units (Triple Dime Play) on 956 Texas Rangers ML (w/M. Harrison) @ -183 / 1.54 on 5 Dimes
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on Texas Over 5 Runs (Team Total Runs Market) @ -115 / 1.87 on 5 Dimes