St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs: Odds, Preview, & Prediction | Friday, June 3rd
St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs Preview: The Redbirds bounce back tonight
The Chicago Cubs will host the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a five-game stint. The Chicago Cubs have won three straight home games and will try to continue that streak. St. Louis will try to play spoiler to the Cubs and come away with their 30th win of the season.
Below, you will find a brief preview of each team followed by a prediction for the game.
St. Louis Cardinals Preview:
#NolanKnows https://t.co/m3VgCUzZNO
"#NolanKnows" - @ Cardinals
The Cardinals have been good to begin the year as they sit at 29-22. Led by Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, the Cardinals offense find themselves ranked inside the top five in the MLB. Goldschmidt has been spectacular. He is in the middle of a 24-game hit streak and leads St. Louis in batting average, home runs, and runs batted-in. The Cardinals offense also ranks fifth in the MLB; scoring 4.74 runs per nine innings.
Tonight, the Cardinals will send Miles Mikolas to the mound. Through 10 starts, Mikolas has given up more than two runs only twice. This is a great matchup for him since the Cubs are only hitting .239 as a team. Mikolas has faired very well against teams that are similarly ranked.
The key to victory for the Cardinals tonight is to produce with runners on base. In last night's loss to the Cubs, the Cardinals struggled to knock in runners in scoring position. If they want to end the Cubs' winning streak, they will need to find ways to produce runs efficiently.
Chicago Cubs Preview:
Three straight wins!
- Frank Schwindel: 3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI
- Willson Contreras: HR, 2 RBI
- Ian Happ: 2-for-4, HR
- Christopher Morel: 16-game on-base streak to begin career https://t.co/FpyHxyxyH9
"Three straight wins!" - @Cubs
The Chicago Cubs have been mediocre so far. They haven't done anything extremely well, and they rank towards the bottom of the league in both hitting and pitching statistics. The Cubs enter today's game against the Cardinals on a three-game home winning streak. However, the Cubs are still only 10-17 at Wrigley Field to begin this season.
Marcus Stroman will get the start for Chicago, and he has been pretty good as of late. In his last five starts, he has given up two or fewer runs in each. Stroman's ERA sits at 3.95, which isn't great. The key to victory for the Cubs tonight is to get a quality start from Stroman, because the St. Louis Cardinals offense has the capability to put up runs in the blink of an eye.
Pick/Prediction: St. Louis Cardinals ML (-110)
This is the perfect bounceback spot for St. Louis. The offense took a while to get going in the loss last night, but this is a matchup they can take advantage of. Marcus Stroman is not a pitcher who relies on strikeouts, so he will be pitching to contact. The Cardinals offense has plenty of talent throughout and will look to put up some runs early. Let's go Redbirds!