St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets: Baseball Betting Preview, Matchup Odds

The St. Louis Cardinals hope to build off a key victory as they travel to face the New York Mets on Monday night as road underdogs on the baseball betting lines at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.

The Cardinals, which lead the National League Central standings, avoided being swept by an opponent and losing three games in a row for the first time this season with a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday night.

St. Louis is the 4-1 second choice to win the NL pennant behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and sits with 15-2 odds to win the World Series thanks to consistently winning this season and avoiding losing streaks of more than two games.

However, the Cardinals have dropped two of their past three series after winning eight straight. They hope veteran right-hander John Lackey (2-2, 3.22 ERA) can get them off to a good start against the NL East-leading Mets, which hold 7-1 odds to win the NL pennant and 16-1 odds to win the World Series.

Lackey has allowed two runs or less in his past three starts, with St. Louis going 2-1 and the under cashing for totals bettors in each of them. He gave up two runs and five hits to the Cleveland Indians the last time out in 5.1 innings on the road Wednesday, walking a season-high five batters and striking out two in a 2-0 loss.

Lackey struck out a season-high 10 batters and allowed one run and five hits over 7.2 innings during his previous start against the Chicago Cubs on May 7, which resulted in a 5-1 win.

New York will counter Monday with Matt Harvey (5-1, 2.31 ERA), who has seen his team lose his last two starts after winning his first five. Harvey pitched well against the Cubs in his most recent outing Wednesday, scattering three hits over seven shutout innings with two walks and nine strikeouts, but the bullpen let him down in a 2-1 loss.

Like Lackey, he has also seen the under cash in his last three starts, although the total went over in his first four to start the year.

This series could feature some low-scoring games based on recent history between the teams, with the Cardinals and Mets splitting their past 12 meetings. The under is 11-1 in those games, according to the Odds Shark MLB database, cashing in each of the last nine. Only two of the previous eight meetings saw more than five runs scored.