MLB Best Bets for Tonight: St. Louis Cardinals & Houston Astros | Tuesday, August 16th

MLB Best Bets for Tonight: Back the Cardinals offense

Tonight, MLB teams will continue their latest series' with many of these teams looking to strengthen their playoff positioning. With the playoffs around the corner, there are no unimportant games.

Many playoff spots could come down to the final day of the regular season, including the National League Central winner. The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers are in a tightly contested race to secure a spot in the divisional round.

If you want betting action on these games, you've come to the right place. Below, you will find two of the best value bets for tonight's slate of MLB games.

Bet #1: St. Louis Cardinals Team Total over 4.5 (-115) vs. the Colorado Rockies

"Quintana gets the start in Game 1 against the Rockies!" - Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals are in a great position to have an offensive explosion tonight. The offense ranks in the top 10 in the MLB in both team average and runs per game. They will face a left-handed pitcher with a high ERA. So far this season, the Cardinals have crushed left-handers, and they will look to do the same tonight.

St. Louis' offense has been led by National League MVP front-runners Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado this season. These sluggers will be asked to help produce tonight.

Kyle Freeland will get the start for the Rockies tonight, and he has had a season to forget. His lone start against the Cardinals came less than a week ago, and the Cardinals lit him up for 6 runs in just under 5 innings of play. This seems likely to happen again. We're going to go with the Cardinals offense to put up 5+ runs in a great matchup tonight. Let's go Red Birds!

Bet #2: Houston Astros/Chicago White Sox NRFI (No Run First Inning) (-128)

"Two Cy Young candidates face off tonight" - MLB

The pitching matchup in this game is one of the best we've seen all season. This is one of the very few times in MLB history that both pitchers this late in the season have sub-2.00 ERA's. The Houston Astros will send Justin Verlander to the mound for this game, and he has been fantastic as of late. Verlander has an ERA of 1.85 and has allowed one or fewer earned runs in seven out of his last eight starts.

The Chicago White Sox, on the other hand, will start Dylan Cease. Cease has compiled a 12-5 record this season to go along with an ERA of 1.96. He has allowed one or fewer runs in 14 straight starts, so you can say he's locked in. This doesn't seem too complicated, and this value is amazing for the pitching matchup provided. NRFI Nation, let's ride!