Hitters Have Edge In Cardinals Vs Giants

Cardinals vs. Giants, 3:45 ET

Here is, in my opinion, one of the biggest issues with sports betting early in the season. You don't really know who, or what, these teams are. For example, I had this belief that the Cardinals would win the division, it is of course still possible, but they are off to a 9-16 start for the year. Sometimes the preseason thoughts influence early season plays. Always be willing to scrap those thoughts so you can win daily plays.

St. Louis shouldn't be this bad, but their pitching staff has been awful to start the season. They have a 4.59 collective ERA and are allowing almost 1.5 walks per inning. Not only that, but they are allowing opponents to hit .275 against them. This road trip to the West Coast has been terrible for them and they've lost four of the five games. Now they are on the verge of being swept by the Giants in this four-game set. Miles Mikolas has been one of the major problems in St. Louis. He currently has a 7.46 ERA, and while I do think he will turn it around, road starts are not where he has excelled over the past few years. Giants hitters are 9-for-42 against him in their careers.

Giants Are Streaking

The Giants might be one of the streakiest teams in all of baseball. They are winners of their past five games and looking to pull off a four-game sweep before they head out on the road to take on the Astros. Before this winning streak, they lost seven of 10 games and five in a row during that stretch. Now they have their Opening Day starter, Logan Webb, on the mound at home. Webb has been good at home this season, allowing just three total earned runs over 13 innings. He has given up too many home runs, something that the Cardinals hitters are capable of doing with regularity. He's allowed six home runs over 30.2 innings. With a .268 average against Webb, I'd have expected more balls to leave the yard for the Cardinals, but he has only allowed one homer to the hitters.

Mikolas and Webb should combine to give up a few runs in this game. I don't have much faith in Mikolas, and with Webb's home run tendencies, I think we see over 4.5 runs in this game through five innings.

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