The St. Louis Cardinals do not get a day of rest after playing on Sunday Night Baseball as they are back at it on the road against the Houston Astros opening a new series on Monday.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Houston Astros (-185, 7.5)
Kyle Gibson gets the starting pitching start for the Cardinals, who enters with 3,60 ERA, but a 4.39 fielding independent with 7.2 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings.
Despite surrendering nearly 3.5 walks and 1.5 home runs per nine innings on the road this season, Gibson’s ERA drops to 2.90 on the road, but he now has to face an Astros lineup that entered Sunday leading the league in home slugging percentage.
Entering Sunday the Cardinals offense was on their best stretch of the season, averaging five runs per game in their past 16 games and will look to get to veteran starting pitcher Justin Verlander.
While Verlander has allowed either one or zero earned runs in three of his past four starts, there’s reason to think the 41-year old will start to see regression.
Verlander’s ERA is 3.26, but his fielding independent is 4.57 with 1.5 home runs and 2.9 walks per nine innings allowed.
Both teams back up their starters with bullpens that have been neither great nor awful with the Astros enter Sunday 11th in the league in bullpen ERA and fourth in ERA the past 30 days while the Cardinals are 15th in bullpen ERA.
With both starting pitchers due in for regression and the Cardinals heating up at the plate, Monday’s series opener sets up for surprisingly large amount of runs.
The Play: Cardinals vs. Astros Over 7.5 Runs
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