The St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies do battle on Sunday Night Baseball with a pair of starting pitchers that are far from their aces looking to pick up a primetime win.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Philadelphia Phillies (-130, 8.5)
Taijuan Walker, who has struggled to a 5.51 ERA in six starts this season with 1.7 home runs and 3.3 walks per nine innings allowed and at least one home run allowed in five of those starts, gets the start tonight on the mound for the Phillies.
Cardinals’ starting pitcher Lance Lynn has also had his share of struggles, leading all MLB pitchers in home runs allowed in 2024 and has posted a 3.43 ERA this season but he has allowed at least four earned runs in three of his past five starts with a 4.23 fielding independent with his 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings — which is on pace to be his lowest since 2017.
The Cardinals back up Lynn with a bullpen that entered the weekend with a 3.98 ERA, ranking 17th in the league. The Phillies entered the weekend ranked 15th in bullpen ERA but have been performing much better recently.
Entering the weekend, the Phillies had the best bullpen ERA of any MLB team at a mark of a 2.24 ERA with the Cardinals having the 19th-best (4.10 bullpen ERA).
At the plate, the Phillies have also been dominant, leading the league in scoring with over 5.2 runs per game with that mark climbing to over 5.7 runs per game when playing at home.
With the Cardinals scoring the second-fewest runs per game on the road of any National League team this season with 3.8 runs per game and their 0.8 home runs per game on the road being the third-fewest of any National team, the Phillies will improve their league-best record even further on Sunday.
The Play: Phillies -130
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