Take A Shot On Cardinals As Road 'Dogs Vs. Almighty Dodgers

The NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers (104-46) host the NL Central-leading St. Louis Cardinals (88-63) Friday for their 3-game series opener at Dodger Stadium.

A pair of lefties take the mound when L.A. sends out starting LHP Andrew Heaney (3-2, 2.66 ERA) to face St. Louis LHP Jose Quintana (5-6, 3.16 ERA). Heaney has been sensational in his first-year as a Dodger as has Quintana since being acquired by the Cardinals at the trade deadline.

St. Louis's ML price combined with its production at the plate vs. lefties plus some quirky line movement equals a BET on the ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (+145) at DraftKings Sportsbook.

Betting Deets (DraftKings)

Cardinals Light Up Lefties

St. Louis's lineup ranks first across several advanced hitting metrics against left-handed pitching including wRC+ (128), wOBA (.347), BB/K rate (0.51) and ISO (.198), per FanGraphs.

More importantly, the Cardinals have the third-best return on investment (ROI) vs. left-handed starters at +23.6% ROI with a 23-10 record. While Heaney is dealing for L.A. this year, he is starting to tail off. Heaney has a 4.36 ERA, 5.11 FIP and 3.0 home runs allowed per nine over his last seven starts.

Also, Heaney grades in the 13th percentile in hard-hit rate, ninth percentile in exit velocity and third percentile in barrel rate, according to Statcast.

Suspect Line Movement Towards St. Louis

More than 80% of the money at DraftKings for the Cardinals-Dodgers is on L.A., per VSIN. However, L.A.'s ML has fallen from -175 on the opener. It's a red flag whenever sportsbooks make the more popular side cheaper. Especially, when it's the Dodgers who've won 20 of their last 30 games.

Lastly, Quintana hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in any of his nine starts since joining the Cardinals. He has a 2.44 ERA while pitching for St. Louis with a 2.80 FIP.

There are enough reasons for taking a shot at St. Louis's chunky ML. Go to DraftKings Sportsbook and BET the ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (+145).

Cardinals ML odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Friday, Sept. 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET.