The Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals have been two underachieving Midwest teams this season and will look to build momentum heading into the All-Star Break when they hook up in the Windy City on Sunday.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago White Sox (-125, 9)
While the White Sox entered the weekend ranked 24th as a team in ERA, Sunday’s starter Lucas Giolito has performed well at home this season, posting a 2.43 ERA with 1.8 walks and 1.1 home runs per nine innings allowed across nine starts this season.
Giolito gets to face a Cardinals offense that has had difficulties generating runs on the road, notching 5.2 runs per game at home compared to just under 4.2 runs per game on the road. St. Louis also relies heavily on the deep ball, ranking seventh in the league in home runs per game.
The Cardinals lineup will likely be asked to do more than usual with Steven Matz making his first start since May 24. He is backed by a bullpen that does not have a single active reliever that has pitched at least seven innings with an ERA below 3.93.
Overall, Matz has a 5.02 ERA with 8.1 strikeouts to 3.4 walks per nine innings, and has had his worst performances as a starter with a 5.72 ERA with 1.4 home runs and 3.6 walks per nine innings in his 10 starts this season.
It doesn’t help that the Cardinals have had the worst bullpen ERA in the league over the past 30 days with an ERA of 6.23 while the offense ranked just 21st in the league in runs scored during that span.
With Giolito pitching his best at home and the Cardinals record 2-16 in games in which Matz pitched in any capacity, the White Sox will go into the All-Star Break with a win.
The Play: White Sox -125
