The entire MLB is in action with a jam-packed 15-game slate on Friday. In the evening window at 8:15 p.m. EST, the St. Louis Cardinals host the Atlanta Braves for a three-game series that’ll take these teams into the All-Star break.
Here’s a Cardinals vs. Braves prediction and pick on DraftKings Sportsbook for Friday night’s game.
Cardinals vs. Braves prediction, preview
The Cardinals are the home team this evening and have been a bit shaky lately. They’re 50-44 on the season overall but have won just four of their last 10 outings, though they’ve somewhat shaken off a series sweep by the Pirates and recovered by winning three of five against the Cubs and Nationals.
St. Louis’ offense does rank in the upper half of the league in most categories and they border the top 10 spots in AVG and runs scored. If there’s one area where they truly excel, it’s avoiding strikeouts as they have the seventh-fewest on year. Brendan Donovan’s excellent season continues as the heartbeat of the team complemented by the contributions of Willson Contreras, Masyn Winn and Alec Burleson.
As for the Braves, they’re just 40-52 and make up one of the MLB’s most extreme falls from grace. Atlanta sits just 2-8 across their last 10 games with the lone wins coming against the Athletics and Angels. They haven’t won a series outright since June 19 and it feels as though the season’s likely lost for a team that had legitimate World Series aspirations entering the campaign.
Runs have been hard to come by this year for Atlanta as the team falls 25th in scoring, 21st in AVG and 22nd in OPS. They’ve been held to two runs or fewer in nine of their last 13 outings as the offense completely falters and Ronald Acuna Jr. works to break out of his first real slump since returning from injury. It’s difficult to win with the rotation decimated by injuries, but the bats aren’t hot enough to even keep things competitive on most nights lately.
Cardinals vs. Braves pick, best bet
The odds on DraftKings Sportsbook favor the Cardinals at -126 on the Moneyline while the Braves are +104 underdogs on the Moneyline. The run total sits at 8.5 in this one.
The pitcher matchup between St. Louis’ Matthew Liberatore and Atlanta’s Grant Holmes actually looks like a duel between underrated arms. Liberatore, a lefty, has a 3.70 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 80 strikeouts in his 97.1 innings this season. Meanwhile, Holmes is a right-hander with a 3.44 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, but he brings much more strikeout potential with 118 in 102.0 innings of work.
Despite how the Cardinals seemed to struggle a little bit over the last couple of weeks, they seem to have recaptured some much-needed momentum heading into the All-Star break with their handful of recent wins. The Braves can’t say the same as their slide continues and they’ve scored the second-fewest runs over the last two weeks at that. While Liberatore isn’t a stud hurler by any means, he’s capable of throwing some quality innings against a team which has truly had its fair share of problems at the plate lately. I’m taking St. Louis on the Moneyline here.
Best bet: STL Cardinals ML (-126)
Click the odds on this bet to tail!
