Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (36-32) at Milwaukee Brewers (36-33)
Time: 6:40pm CT Thursday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network
Probable pitchers: Sonny Gray (7-1, 3.35 ERA) vs Jacob Misiorowski (Major League debut)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Cardinals -144, Brewers +118
Total: 7.5 (over -113, under -107)
Big Series For Brewers, Cardinals
The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers open a key four-game series tonight at American Family Field.
The two NL Central rivals are separated by just a half-game in the standings, and both teams are slumping right now. The Redbirds have lost four in a row, while the Brewers have dropped four of six on their current ten-game homestand.
Can Gray Be The Stopper Again?
Tonight’s starter Sonny Gray has been the stopper that the Cardinals need this season. They are 11-2 with their ace on the mound, including some important wins that got the Cards back on track. Gray beat the Pirates on April 8th to snap a four-game losing streak for the Redbirds, and he blanked the Dodgers for 6.1 innings this past Friday to help the Cards to a win after they had dropped four of their previous six games.
Gray has been lights-out of late. Over his last four starts covering 25.1 innings, he has allowed just 3 runs while striking out 30 hitters. The Cardinals were victorious in all four of those games and have won six straight when Gray is on the hill.
Misiorowski Debuts For Milwaukee
The Brewers are calling up one of their prized pitching prospects Jacob Misiorowski to make his Major League debut in this one. The 23-year-old right-hander is a hard-thrower that gets a lot of strikeouts with a fastball that can touch 100 MPH, but he is prone to wildness as well. Overall this season in 13 games (12 starts) at Triple-A Nashville, Misiorowski went 4-2 with a 2.13 ERA with 80 strikeouts and 31 walks in 63.1 innings.
In his last start in the minors, Misiorowski pitched 5 shutout innings with 2 hits allowed, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. But in the start before that, he went just 2 innings and gave up 5 runs on 3 hits with 6 walks and 1 hit batter.
My Pick
I’m going to trust Gray to be the stopper once again against a struggling Milwaukee offense. The Brewers are averaging just 1.83 runs per game in the first six games of their current homestand.
Maybe Misiorowski will dominate, which he is certainly capable of doing with the stuff he has. But making his Major League debut with some nerves certain to be in play, I think the Cardinals will find a way to put up a few runs.
I don’t like laying -144 juice here, so I’m going to take the Cardinals -1 at -109. That means if the Cards win the game by one run, this bet is a push.
Pick: Cardinals -1 at -109 on DraftKings (bet to -115)
Eric Sontag hosts Domesticated Gamblers every Friday on the STL Sports Central YouTube channel. Follow him on X @GamblingDads, and click here for his daily picks on all of our St. Louis area sports teams. Picks = betting the game - minus odds betting to win 1 unit, plus odds risking 1 unit. Leans = no strong opinion, not betting the game. Disclaimer