Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals Betting Preview
On what has been one of the most improbable runs of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals (87-69) will go for win number 17 as they host the Milwaukee Brewers (94-62) on Tuesday night. The game will be played at Busch Stadium, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:45 pm ET.
For the Brewers, they enjoyed a three-game sweep of the New York Mets over the weekend before getting Monday off. The sweep clinched the NL Central for the Brewers as they now sit firmly in the second seed heading into the playoffs.
The Cardinals have been as hot as it gets lately. They are 20-6 in the month of September and have swept four straight series. While they won’t be able to catch the Brewers in the division, St. Louis sits 5.5 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the second wild-card spot.
Surprisingly, the Brewers are the favorites despite playing on the road. They are -122 to win Tuesday while the Cardinals’ moneyline sits at +104. The runline features St. Louis +1.5 (-178), and the over/under for total runs is seven.
Pitching Matchup
It is a fantastic pitching matchup to open the series. The Brewers will send righty Brandon Woodruff (9-10, 2.52 ERA) to the mound. In his last seven starts, he is 2-4 with a 3.55 ERA.
The Cardinals will counter with veteran righty Adam Wainwright. This season, he is 16-7 with a 3.05 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and he has struck out 170 in 200.1 innings. In his last seven starts, he is 5-0 with a 2.36 ERA.
By The Numbers
The Brewers have been the better offensive team throughout the season between the two. They currently rank 11th in scoring averaging 4.60 runs per game (5.04 on the road). The Cardinals rank 19th, averaging 4.39 runs per game (3.81 at home).
Defensively, it is again the Brewers with the advantage. They rank third in the majors in scoring defense, allowing opponents an average of 3.76 runs per game. The Cardinals rank 12th allowing 4.17 runs per game.
Brewers Can Play Relaxed With Division Clinched
There is no greater feeling in the final week of the season than already knowing that you have your division clinched. For the Brewers, that became a reality over the weekend.
As a result, it would not be shocking to see the Brewers give guys days off throughout the week and work on setting their postseason rotation.
Over the last couple of weeks, shortstop Willy Adames has been their hottest hitter. While hitting just .227/.308/.500 in that stretch, he has two home runs and six runs batted in.
One person to watch for in this one is Tyrone Taylor. In just two at-bats against Wainwright, he has two home runs and five runs batted in.
Former Cardinal Kolten Wong has also had success going three for seven with a run batted in against his former teammate.
Cardinals Hope To Push Streak To 17
While the Brewers have clinched the division, the Cardinals are hoping to clinch a playoff spot over the new couple of days. While it might be a foregone conclusion that it will happen, St. Louis would still like to make it official.
Luckily for Cardinal fans, St. Louis has been the hottest team in baseball over the last 16 games and have been led by Paul Goldschmidt and Tyler O’Neill.
In the last 15 days, Goldschmidt is hitting a ridiculous .400/.477/.891 with seven home runs and 16 runs batted in.
Not to be outdone in that stretch, O’Neill is hitting .316/.365/.719 with seven home runs and 21 runs batted in.
O’Neill also has had success against Woodruff in his career. In fact, in 11 at-bats, he is hitting .273 with three home runs and seven runs batted in against the righty.
Take The Cardinals On The Runline
The Cardinals have been on an absolutely magical run over the last few weeks, and that has put them solidly in a playoff position.
Inevitably, their streak of consecutive wins will likely end sometime soon, but it isn’t guaranteed that it will be Tuesday. While Brandon Woodruff has been brilliant this year, Adam Wainwright has actually been better as of late.
With runs expected to be at a premium, the smart bet in this one is to take the Cardinals at +1.5 on the runline.
