The 2011 Major League Baseball World Series is upon us and bookmakers have had no hesitation in making the Texas Rangers odds on favourites to win. The St Louis Cardinals won’t be making life easy for the Rangers; in fact, both pitchers will find life tough as the two big hitting teams play out the series. The World Series opens with the first two games to be played at St Louis followed by three games in Texas. If needed, the teams will return to St Louis for the final two of the best of seven games.

While both sides are fielding strong hitting lineups, don’t expect the same big scores that we saw in the playoffs – this is World Series and pitchers are should to step up to the tasks. The Texas Rangers come into the World Series with the third highest runs scored during the regular season. St Louis were not far behind with the fifth best aggregate. With strong offensive units, and good pitchers on the mound, this may even develop into a boring world series from a home run perspective. Purists will enjoy the battle of wits between pitchers, the big hitters, and the managers who have carefully plotted out their teams run through to the World Series.

In Major League Baseball betting, the Texas Rangers are 5/7 to win St Louis Cardinals at 7/5. The most interesting betting is in the pick the correct score market. The most popular bets are on a Rangers 4-2 victory with most bookmakers quoting 4/1. A Rangers 4-3 victory is next best at 9/2 and you can back the Rangers into a 4-1 win at 5/1. Clean sweeps are the least popular with a Rangers 4-0 sweep quoted at 10/1 and a Cardinals 4-0 victory quoted at 20/1.

If you like the Cardinals to take the series, you can back a 4-3 series win at 5/1, a 4-2 series win at 11/2 and a 4-1 series win at 9/1. With the first two games to be played at St Louis, those odds could take a dramatic turn should the Cardinals win them both. Our tip – we’re betting against the favourites and tipping it to go down to the wire with the Cardinals winning 4-3.