This is an 8* play on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Sometimes a favorite is a favorite for a reason and in this case, we absolutely believe that Carlos Martinez and the hard-hitting visiting side could/should easily be much larger ones.

Martinez: He's 10-10 with a 3.52 ERA. Martinez comes in off an outing to forget against the Brewers on Wednesday, allowing six runs (just three earned) while striking out seven over six innigns of work. Despite the sub-par outing, Martinez has now given up three earned runs or fewer in each of his past six starts. To go along with his solid 3.52 ERA he also owns a sharp 1.21 WHIP and 9.4 K/9 (owns a respectable 3.49 ERA in all "day" games.)

Luis Perdomo: He's 7-8 with a 4.69 ERA. Perdomo comes in off a decent outing against the Giants on Tuesday, giving up two runs for the victory. Perdomo has looked btter of late, but still owns a poor 4.69 ERA and 1.9 K/BB ratio (also has a poor 4.80 ERA at home this year.)

The bottom line: We expect Martinez to outduel his volatile counterpart. Lay the price with confidence, play on the CARDINALS.

AAA Sports