Picks, predictions for Reds vs. Cardinals on Saturday, June 10

The Cincinnati Reds (29-35) and the St. Louis Cardinals (27-37) will play the second game of their three-game divisional series on Saturday, June 10. First pitch from Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri is set for 2:15 p.m. ET. Cincinnati will send highly-touted rookie Andrew Abbott (1-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound for his second career start while St. Louis counters with righty Miles Mikolas (4-2, 3.74 ERA).

The Cardinals are the -165 moneyline favorites at DraftKings Sportsbook. The Reds are the +140 underdogs, and the run total is set at 8.5.

Reds-Cardinals picks: Saturday, June 10th

Injury report

Reds

Day to day: OF Jake Fraley (wrist)

Out: SP Graham Ashcraft (calf), RP Derek Law (flexor), 1B Wil Myers (shoulder), OF Nick Senzel (knee), OF TJ Friedl (hamstring)

Cardinals

Out: OF Tyler O’Neill (back), OF Lars Nootbaar (back)

Starting pitchers

Andrew Abbott vs. Miles Mikolas

Abbott will be making his second career start. MLB Pipeline’s No. 95 overall prospect faced the Milwaukee Brewers his first time out and impressed with six shutout innings. The lefty allowed just one hit while striking out six and walking four to earn his first big league win.

Mikolas will take the mound for the 14th time this season. He’d been rolling going into his last start, with consecutive scoreless outings, but that streak ended with Mikolas allowing two earned runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The concerning part is that he gave up 10 hits, while only striking out two. Due to a lack of run support, those two runs were the difference-makers, and Mikolas took his second loss of the season.

Over/Under pick

This will be the sixth time these opponents will face off this season. So far, the run totals have finished at 11, 13, 13, 3 and 11 runs, respectively. Cincy has scored at least four runs in three of its last four games, while St. Louis has scored at least three runs in every game in that same span. Abbott coming off a shutout in his debut makes this run total hard to predict, but with the way these teams have been hitting recently, I am taking the over.

Pick: Over 8.5

Moneyline pick

The Reds called up Elly De La Cruz and pulled off back-to-back walk-off wins against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then, they dropped two straight, one being a 6-0 shutout. The Cardinals have won consecutive games but dropped five in a row before that. Mikolas shut down Cincinnati when he faced them a few weeks ago through seven shutout innings. Still, I worry about his run support in this one and think Cincinnati evens the series.

Pick: Reds