MLB playoff betting favored St. Louis before their NLDS series with the Los Angeles Dodgers started, but they find themselves just trying to avoid elimination on Saturday when the host the Dodgers at Busch Stadium.

Dodgers vs Cardinals Odds – Saturday, October 10, 6:07 PM ET

Vicente Padilla (12-6, 4.46) is making the first postseason start of his 11-year career, and in seven career outings against the Cardinals, including three starts, Padilla is 2-1 with a 3.68 ERA. He’s never pitched at the new Busch Stadium, but strangely, Padilla was better away from home this year, going 7-2 in 13 games (12 starts) and a 3.60 ERA with the Dodgers and Texas Rangers. Sportsbook players may think this is a strange hurler to have out there when the Dodgers have Chad Billingsley, who is slated for Game 4 and had a lot of problems in the second half of the year.

Joel Pineiro (15-12, 3.49) should have a better record at home, but he was hurt by some poor run support early in the season. Pineiro is only 7-6 in 15 starts at home despite a 2.87 ERA, but the Cardinals came on later in the season for the 31-year-old. Pineiro is 2-0 in three career outings against the Dodgers with a 3.38 ERA, and he’ll be making his first postseason start since 2001, when he gave up a run on four hits in just two innings with Seattle, but he did manage to strike out five hitters.

Betting services favor St. Louis at home at -165, and they really should be tied at one in this series, if it wasn’t for an untimely and incredibly uncharacteristic error by Matt Holliday in the ninth inning of Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Dodgers. Pineiro gives the Cardinals an excellent chance to win, and it’ll also be interesting to see how Padilla fares in his postseason debut. He’s a veteran, but we’ve seen the playoffs eat up more experienced and talented pitchers before. It’ll be close, though, as the Cardinals are only one game better at home than the Dodgers are on the road. Go with the Cardinals in your MLB picks.