St. Louis (68-56) at Washington (53-74), 7:05 p.m. EDT Sports.com Line: St. Louis –180, Washington +170 Total: 7.5
After dropping two of three to the lowly Pirates, the Cardinals will look to get back on track in our nation’s capital Thursday night. St. Louis sends Chris Carpenter (14-4, 2.88 ERA) to the hill while the Nationals counter with right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, who’s making his first start of the season in place of the injured Stephen Strasburg. Basketball Odds

Carpenter has been impressive lately, delivering a quality start in each of his last eight outings. His most recent effort was a 5-1 win over San Francisco. He went 7.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits. Carpenter is 6-1 with a 3.30 ERA in 11 career starts vs. the Nationals/Expos, but he allowed eight or more hits in eight of those starts. Baseball Odds

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old Zimmermann makes his 2010 debut for Washington after a tough 2009 campaign — 3-5, 4.63 ERA in 16 starts. In Zimmermann’s only career start against the Cardinals (May 1, 2009) he surrendered three homers and allowed five runs in 5.2 IP.Carpenter has the strong backing of this FoxSheets trend:

Play Against – All underdogs with a money line of +100 or higher (WASHINGTON) – bad offensive team (<=4.1 runs/game) against a good starting pitcher (ERA<=3.70) (NL), with an overused bullpen that pitches more than 3.2 innings per game. (173-64 over the last 5 seasons.) (73%, +64.3 units. Rating = 3*). Sports Scores