ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (50-46)

at NEW YORK METS (48-48)

First pitch: Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. EDT
Line: New York -110, St. Louis +100, Total: 8.5

The Mets climbed back to .500 by beating the Cardinals on Tuesday night. They have a great chance to re-claim a winning record on Wednesday. Baseball scores.

Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey has been throwing well of late, while Cards starter Kyle McClellan has not. And on top of that, Mets stars Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are back in the lineup. St. Louis has dropped five of its past six road games and is hitting just .208 with 2.7 runs per game over that span. All of these factors make NEW YORK the pick at nearly even money.

The FoxSheets give another three-star reason that supports the Mets.

Play Against – All teams when the money line is +125 to -125 (ST. LOUIS) – after 4 straight games where they stranded 7 or less runners on base, starting a over rested pitcher who is working on 7 or more days rest. (69-30 over the last 5 seasons, 69.7%, +38 units. Rating = 3*).

The FoxSheets also expect a high-scoring game to finish OVER the total.

ST. LOUIS is 24-9 OVER (72.7%, +14.5 Units) after 3 straight games without giving up a stolen base this season. The average score was ST. LOUIS 5.3, OPPONENT 5.3 – (Rating = 3*). Baseball odds.

Dickey (4-8, 3.70 ERA) has a 2.91 ERA over his past five starts, with the Mets winning four of them. His knuckleball is working as well as it ever has, as he’s struck out 27 and walked just eight in 34 innings during that span. His only start in the past seven years against St. Louis was last July at Citifield, when he shut them out over 8.1 innings and allowed just six base runners (4 H, 2 BB) in a victory. He also started against the Cards in June 2004, allowing nine runs in 1.1 innings of a 13-2 loss.

With Reyes coming back from the DL and Beltran returning from a bout with the flu, the Mets had 14 hits on Tuesday night. Reyes went 2-for-5 while Beltran went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two walks. And in their first save chance since trading closer Francisco Rodriguez, Jason Isringhausen nailed down the victory with a perfect ninth inning.

After a fast start to the year, McClellan (6-6, 4.24 ERA) has hit a rough spot. He began the season 6-1 with a 3.11 ERA, but he’s given up four or more runs in five of his past six starts since then, going 0-5 with a 6.35 ERA with the Cards losing all six of those games. He’ll be making his first career start against the Mets. Baseball spreads.

St. Louis is just 3-7 all-time at Citifield, getting outscored 59-33 in those 10 meetings. The Cards are batting .232 with a .334 slugging percentage in the Mets young ballpark.