The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves resume their four-game series on Wednesday. Atlanta won the first two games including a 7-1 blowout victory on Tuesday.
St. Louis is 44-38 on the season and they are in second place in the NL Central Division, just three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals are just 4-6 in their last 10 games played and have dropped five out of their last six.
Atlanta is 48-34 on the campaign and they also have the second-best record in their division, the NL East. The defending World Series champions stand 2.5 games behind the division-leading New York Mets. Atlanta has won seven out of its last 10 games played and heads to Game 3 with four wins in their last five outings.
The seven-game road trip is almost over for the Cardinals. St. Louis dropped two out of three games to the Phillies in their previous series and opened this one losing the first two. Scoring has been a problem lately as the Cardinals have scored only four runs in their last three games, all of which have ended in losses.
Miles Mikolas will take the mound for the 17th time this season. Mikolas gave up four runs, including two earned in 5.1 innings during his last start against the Phillies. The 33-year-old right-hander was charged with the loss to drop to 5-6 on the season with an ERA of 2.61 and a WHIP of 0.99. St. Louis is just 2-3 in his last five starts.
Nolan Arenado is off to a fast start this month with six runs in his last five games played. The 31-year-old is having another fine season as he’s already produced 55 RBIs and an OPS of .889. He went 6-25 with 7 RBIs against Atlanta last season and went 2-5 in the series opener.
After a slow start, the Braves are starting to make ground on the New York Mets. Atlanta is now just down 3.5 games in the divisional standings and they are playing very well right now. They have won their previous two series against the Phillies and Red and are beginning a nine-game home stand.
Max Fried will open for the 17th time this season for Atlanta. The 28-year-old left-hander is 8-2 on the year with an ERA of 2.66 and a WHIP of 1.03. Fried held the Reds to only one run in seven innings and picked up the win in his most recent start. Fried is 3-0 with an ERA of 0.44 in 20 innings pitched against the Cardinals in his career. The Braves are also 5-0 in his last five starts.
Atlanta continued to play without Ozzie Albies but are still scoring 4.74 runs per game this season, 5th best overall. Dansby Swanson went 9-24 with a .903 OPS versus the Cardinals last season. Swanson is having a good year as he has a solid OPS of .868 with 49 RBI. He has produced a total of nine hits in his last four games played.
The Cardinals are 0-6 in their last six games played against the Braves. St. Louis is also 1-5 in their last six games played in Atlanta.
The Cardinals are:
The Braves are:
These two have been among the best teams in the National League this season so we should have a good game here. However, the Braves have the advantage in several areas.
One Atlanta has the better starter with Fried 4-0 with an ERA of 1.94 in 46.1 innings pitched in his last seven starts. Over the same period, Mikolas has thrown for 45 innings and has a record of 2-4 with an ERA of 3.40. Second, their offenses have not been producing the same output as of late. The Braves are scoring an average of six runs per game during this period while the Cardinals are producing only 3.2 runs per game in their last five outings.
The Braves have looked the better team in recent weeks and they have the edge when it comes to the starter. This should be a close game but I expect the defending champions to pick up the home win on Wednesday.
Prediction: Atlanta Braves
The total has gone under in four out of the last six head-to-head meetings between the Cardinals and Braves. However, the over is 14-6 in their last 20 games played in Atlanta.
St. Louis Cardinals over/under trends:
Atlanta Braves over/under trends:
Mikolas has pitched well this season and is even more effective on the road where his ERA is 2.63 this year. The under has also cashed in four out of his last five starts. Meanwhile, Fried has been excellent as well as he has allowed only four runs in his last 20.2 innings pitched. He has also given up only one run in 20 career innings against the Cardinals.
When the two pitchers depart this game, their relievers will be equally good. The Atlanta bullpen is ranked 5th overall in team ERA at 3.28 while the Cardinals have a reliever ERA of 3.56 which is 10th best in baseball. Three out of the Braves’ last four games have seen a total of 8 runs or fewer so given that we have two very good pitchers on the mound on Wednesday, we should have a close and low-scoring game. I like the teams to hit the under for this game.
Prediction: Under 8
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