The St. Louis Cardinals start their 2024 second half of the season on the road at the Atlanta Braves on Friday. The Cardinals and Braves are both currently the top two wildcard teams as play starts up on Friday. The Cardinals are second with a 50-46 record. St. Louis is just 4.5 games behind the Brewers in the divisional standings. St. Louis is coming off a loss to the Cubs on Sunday.
For Atlanta, they have some work to do to run down the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East. The Braves are 53-42 on the season, which is tops in wildcard standings. The Braves are 6-4 over their last 10 games, and coming into the game fresh after beating San Diego on Sunday.
The Atlanta Braves are -175 at home over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday. The total for this game is set at 7.5 runs.
Cardinals Looking to Start Second Half Strong
The Cardinals start the second half of the season ranking 22nd in Major League Baseball in runs scored. The Cardinals are hitting .245 as a team, which is 13th in all of the league. The Cardinals have struggled with the long ball, with 94 on the season.
The top threats in the Cardinals offense have been Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson and Brendan Donovan. Winn, who is in his rookie season, is hitting .284 on the season. Burleson leads the team at .288. Donovan is at .276. The power is coming from Burleson, along with Nolan Gorman with 17 homeruns.
St. Louis will head to Pittsburgh for three games to start next week, and then come back home and host the Nationals and Rangers to finish the month of July.
The Cardinals have not announced their starting pitcher for this game. Miles Mikolas leads the team in starts, with 20. Sonny Gray, for the most part was their best starting pitcher, and would be ready to start, as his last start was July 12th.
Braves Still Big Time Threat
Atlanta continues to play without two of their top sluggers in Michael Harris and Ronald Acuna. The Braves offense still is averaging 4.3 runs per game, and have a .241 batting average. Despite missing two sluggers in the middle of the lineup, they have clubbed 109 homeruns on the season.
The top hitters for the Braves have been Marcell Ozuna and Austin Riley. Ozuna leads the team with a .303 batting average, and 26 homeruns. Riley has 12 homeruns, which is one less than Matt Olson. Jarred Kelenic has 10 for Atlanta on the season.
Atlanta will host the Cincinnati Reds for three games next week, and then start a road trip with four games at the Mets.
The Braves have not announced a starting pitcher yet for this game. Chris Sale has been their ace this season. He has made 18 starts, and is 13-3, with a 2.70 earned run average on the season.
Braves Top Cardinals
We like Atlanta to start with a win after the break. If Sale, or even Max Fried throw in this game, the Cardinals are in trouble. Take Atlanta -175 over St. Louis.
