St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers Betting Preview
Saturday evening features a battle of NL Central rivals as the St. Louis Cardinals (4-2) take on the Milwaukee Brewers (4-4). The Brewers will host this one at American Family Field, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:10 pm ET.
This is the third of a four-game series. The Brewers took the first game 5-1, and on Friday, the Cardinals came back with a 10-1 victory.
In Friday’s win, Nolan Arenado led the charge going two for three with his fourth home run of the season and three runs batted in. Tommy Edman also added a home run as part of a 10-run, 14-hit outburst for the Cards.
After winning Thursday’s matchup behind a strong start from Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta could not produce the same results for the Brew Crew. He went three innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits.
Offensively, the Brewers mustered just six hits, led by Hunter Renfroe, who went two for four.
Milwaukee is the slight favorite playing at home Saturday. They are -118 to win while the Cardinals’ moneyline sits at +100. The spread features St. Louis +1.5 (-205), and the over/under for total runs is 8.5.
Pitching Matchup
St. Louis will turn to lefty Steven Matz in this one. Acquired in the offseason, Matz was roughed up in his first start. Losing to the Pirates, he allowed seven runs on nine hits in just three innings of work. He will look to bounce back Saturday.
The Brewers will counter with righty Adrian Houser. The 29-year-old also picked up the loss in his first game, allowing two runs in 3.2 innings of work to the Baltimore Orioles.
Cardinals Look To Ride Hot Bats
At 4-2, the Cardinals have gotten off to a strong start, and their offense has done a lot of the heavy lifting. Coming into play Saturday, they rank third in home runs (11) and tied for eighth in total runs (36).
Without a doubt, the hottest hitter on the Cardinals has been third baseman Nolan Arenado. In 23 at bats, he is hitting .435/.500/1.087 with four home runs, 12 runs batted in, and seven runs. In fact, he leads the team in all three of those categories.
One player to keep an eye out for in this one is first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. In 21 at bats against Houser, he is hitting .286 with two home runs and six runs batted in. Yadier Molina has also taken Houser deep in his career.
Brewers Look For Pitching To Settle Down
Last year, the starting rotation for the Brewers was one of the best in all of baseball. Outside of Corbin Burnes’ 2.25 ERA (he still doesn’t have a win), no other starter for the Brewers has below a 4.91 ERA (which belongs to Houser, Saturday’s starter).
While the Brewers’ offense is capable, it is their pitching that is going to lead them to the postseason. On Saturday, the pitching staff will try to get back on track.
On the offensive side, the team has been depleted of power as they have just four home runs, the second-fewest in all of baseball.
Rowdy Tellez has probably been the most productive Milwaukee hitter, but even he only has a single home run and four runs batted in.
The offense will have to produce more if they want to move above .500.
Take The Cardinals +1.5
While Steven Matz certainly did not instill any confidence in his last outing, it wasn’t exactly like Adrian Houser was immune to his own issues in his first start.
Throw on top of that the offensive struggles of the Brewers thus far, and taking the Cardinals on the runline seems like a no-brainer at this point.
If the Cardinals can carry over their offensive production into Saturday night, there is a lot of value taking them to win straight up. At the very least, feel confident taking St. Louis +1.5.
