First pitch: Thursday, 8:15 p.m. EDT
Line: St. Louis -125, Milwaukee +115, Total: 7.5

Milwaukee comes into the series finale Thursday night against St. Louis scorching hot and looking to finish off the sweep. The Brewers have won six in a row and are 13-1 since July 26. The Cardinals now find themselves five games out in the NL Central and can ill afford to get swept.

Yovani Gallardo (13-7, 3.56 ERA) will get the start for the Brewers and try to replicate his last outing against the Cards at Busch Stadium when he threw eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out six in a 4-0 victory. Chris Carpenter (7-8, 3.75 ERA) has been horrible against the Brewers this year going 0-2 with a humongous 8.18 ERA. Milwaukee has been bad on the road this year (26-35) but has won five in a row on its current road trip. Milwaukee has not fared too well as an underdog of +100 to +125 this year, going 8-15. St. Louis has been average at home (29-26), but has been a winning bet in night games (44-36) and has played the role of favorite pretty well too (47-39). The pick here is for ST. LOUIS to fend off the sweep in a victory.

The FoxSheets provide a trend steering bettors away from Gallardo and Milwaukee:

GALLARDO is 13-26 (33.3%, -15.1 Units) against the money line when the money line is +125 to -125 since 1997. (Team's Record). The average score was GALLARDO 4.5, OPPONENT 5.5.

Gallardo is coming off a gem against Houston August 5, when he threw eight innings, allowing one run on four hits and striking out six in an 8-1 win. The Brewers have done a good job of silencing the Cardinals big bats. Lance Berkman is batting .147 (5-for-34) and Albert Pujols is hitting .119 (5-for-42) against Milwaukee this year.

Carpenter pitched well Saturday, throwing 6.2 innings, allowing one run on five hits in a 2-1 win over the Marlins. St. Louis really relies on its superstar Albert Pujols, (.277 BA, 27 HR, 70 RBI) considering Pujols is batting .348 in wins, and .188 in losses. The Cardinals are 3-8 this year against the rivals Brewers and 8-15 in home meetings in the past three seasons.