Three’s company, right? The Los Angeles Angels just won their third consecutive game last night and have taken back-to-back outings against the St. Louis Cardinals. With the Redbirds riding a four-game losing streak of their own, they’re looking to fend off a Halos squad that’s surely enthused to bust out the brooms this afternoon at Angel Stadium. First pitch is set for 4:07 p.m. ET.
Let’s dive in with a preview, prediction and pick for today’s Cardinals vs. Angels game, courtesy of odds and lines on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Cardinals vs. Angels prediction, preview
On Monday night, the Angels took the first game of this series with a 3-2 result thanks to a walk-off HBP in the bottom of the ninth. Yesterday, they followed it up with a 5-1 victory as Jo Adell homered on back-to-back nights.
It’s been an exciting couple of days in Anaheim, but the Angels are still just 41-61 with a run differential of -57.They did move to 24-27 at home though, and they’re 3-2 coming out of the All-Star break. St. Louis dropped to 51-49 with a run differential of -1, briefly falling out of the NL Wild Card picture at half a game out. The club has now dropped four straight games and is 1-4 since the break.
For the visiting Cardinals, young RHP Hunter Dobbins (1-1) gets the start. He has a 4.03 ERA with a 1.39 WHIP in five games (three starts), striking out 23 hitters across his 22.1 IP. That means a 24.2% K%, but a 10.5% BB% isn’t great over the admittedly small sample size. St. Louis’ bullpen ranks 19th in ERA at 4.25 with a 1.36 WHIP and a 9.6% K-BB%.
For the Angels, it’ll be LHP Reid Detmers (3-6) on the bump today. He carries a 4.16 ERA into this outing but has a 1.12 WHIP with 130 strikeouts in 114.2 IP, good for a 27.4% K%. He has above-average chase and whiff rates with a 7.4% BB% as well. The bullpen behind him slots in at 24th in ERA with a 4.50 mark though, also holding a 1.39 WHIP and a 13.0% K-BB%.
Neither lineup is exactly stellar when it comes to offensive production. Both clubs lack significant power at 23rd in ISO with marks of .149 or worse, with a slight edge to Los Angeles in the category while also bringing 112 home runs to St. Louis’ 109. They’re also 23rd and 24th in OPS, respectively, holding near-identical numbers of .704 and .703, though the Cardinals do get on base slightly more reliably. The splits do get a little more interesting, however. The Redbirds face a lefty and slash .248/.326/.388 for a .714 OPS in the split; the Halos have a .239/.314/.384 line for a .699 OPS against right-handers.
Cardinals vs. Angels pick, best bet
DraftKings Sportsbook lists the Angels as a -132 favorite on the Moneyline at home today, while the Cardinals are a +110 road underdog for an outright win. The run total sits at 8.5 for this outing.
This is a spot where St. Louis can finally snap its losing streak. Detmers is rather nice with it, but he’s allowed five earned runs in two of his three starts this month with four homers allowed over that span. Now, he did get back on track with six shutout innings in his most recent appearance, but it’s still worth noting that he’s conceded 17 earned runs and five homers over his last five games combined. The Cardinals’ batters have the fourth-lowest K% in baseball at just 20.5%, which drops to second best at 17.6% against southpaws. They may not shell him since this isn’t a power-hitting team, but taking away some of the strikeout risk that makes him so good means they can weather the storm on the plus side of their splits.
Conversely, the Halos are on the wrong side of their own batting splits. Is this an end-all, be-all type of deal? No, but there’s enough here and we have a large-enough sample of the Cards being a solid baseball team to believe that they’ll get back on the right foot this afternoon as a plus-money underdog.
