The St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets wrap up their series in Queens on Sunday both hovering around .500 and looking to build momentum in a competitive National League.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets (-115, 8)
The Mets give Jose Quintana the start on the mound, who enters having allowed three runs or fewer in four of his five starts this season as a pitch-to-contact guy, getting just 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings since joining the Mets prior to the start of the 2023 season, but is also supplying a 3.73 ERA in his two seasons with the Mets.
Behind Quintana is a Mets bullpen that has closer Edwin Diaz back after missing the 2023 season, which has made a big impact with the team posting a 2.85 bullpen ERA entering Saturday, which ranks seventh in the league after ranking 22nd in this category in 2023.
On the other side of the pitching matchup, Lance Lynn gets the start for St. Louis, whose 2.81 ERA this season is a bit misleading according to the advanced numbers that show a 4.41 fielding independent.
Lynn’s 44 home runs allowed in 2023 led all MLB pitchers and he has managed to keep a tidy ERA this season despite giving up 1.4 home runs and 3.5 walks per nine innings while his strikeouts per nine inning rate has ticked down to 9.1 this season, which is on pace to be his lowest since the 2017 season.
Backing up Lynn is an offense that has struggled in 2024, entering Saturday ranked 26th in both batting average at .219 and runs per game at 3.5 while ranking last in the National League in home runs.
With the Mets offense entering the weekend tied for eighth in home runs per game and 11th in scoring with 4.6 runs per game, the bats will lend enough support to get Quintana and the pitching staff to victory.
The Play: Mets -115
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