St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants Betting Preview
Tuesday night features a National League battle of Central versus West as the St. Louis Cardinals (9-14) take on the San Francisco Giants (9-13). The Giants will host this one at Oracle Park, with first pitch scheduled for 9:45 pm ET.
Cardinals Still Trying To Find Footing
After being predicted by most to win the NL Central, the St. Louis Cardinals have gotten out to a miserable start. Not only are they just 9-14 on the season, but they have struggled to find any consistency. Trying to get back on track, they will look to pick up the win Tuesday night.
One area that they have especially struggled is on defense. They currently rank 21st in earned run average (4.66) and 20th in opponents runs per game (4.82). Trying to stop the bleeding for St. Louis will be pitcher Jake Woodford.
In four games, the 26-year-old is 1-2 with a 6.05 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, and he has just 12 strikeouts in 19.1 innings of work. Even in his last start, a win over Arizona, he still gave up four runs on seven hits over five innings of work.
Offensively, Nolan Gorman has been the team’s hottest hitter. In 71 at bats, he is hitting .310/.390/.634 with a team-leading six home runs and 22 runs batted in.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals’ offense couldn’t get anything going in the opening game of the series Monday. In the 4-0 loss, the Cardinals mustered just six hits. Brandon Donovan is the only player with a multi-hit game, as he had two hits in the loss.
Giants Look To Take First Two Games Of The Series
Coming into Tuesday’s game, the Giants have won three in a row, including their winner on Monday. They would love to continue that streak Tuesday and take the first two games of the series at home.
The hero of Monday’s game was starter Alex Cobb. He pitched a complete game shutout, allowing no runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out four.
Offensively, J.D. Davis hit his fifth home run of the season. In total, he went two for four with three runs batted in and a run scored. Davis leads the team not only in home runs, but in runs batted in (16) as well.
Likely working out of an opener role, righty John Brebbia will get the ball in this one. In 10 games this season, he is 1-0 with a 5.63 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and he has 12 strikeouts over eight innings of work.
Take Cardinals To Even Series
Looking at the trends, the Cardinals are 2-5 in their last seven games overall and 2-4 in their last six against the Giants. They are 3-6 in their last nine games against NL West opponents (stemming back to last year).
For the Giants, they are 4-2 in their last six games. Stemming back to last season, they are 15-5 in their last 20 Tuesday home games.
While Jake Woodford has been far from dominant for the Cardinals this season, the Giants are trying to rely on a bullpen day to get through this one. The problem for San Francisco is their bullpen has the fourth-worst ERA in the majors at 5.29.
For that reason, take the Cardinals to bounce back from Monday’s loss and expect them to win this one with relative ease.
