Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (44-37) vs Chicago Cubs (47-33)
Time: 1:15pm CT Thursday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network
Probable pitchers: Andre Pallante (5-3, 4.48 ERA) vs Shota Imanaga (3-2, 2.82 ERA)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Cubs -137, Cardinals +113
Total: 9 (over -115, under -106)
Cards, Cubs Close Series With Matinee
The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs wrap up their series later today with a weekday afternoon getaway day game for both teams.
This is a big game for the Cards, as their good work in the first two games of this series will be cancelled out if they fall short this afternoon. The Redbirds will trail the Cubs by either 2.5 or 4.5 games in the NL Central depending on the result of this afternoon’s matchup.
Cardinals Look To Bounce Back From Quiet Night
The Cardinals were shut out last night for just the fourth time this season, and they’ll be looking to rebound today against left-hander Shota Imanaga. The Cards have just a .687 OPS this season against lefties as opposed to a .737 OPS against righties.
It’ll be Andre Pallante on the mound today for the Redbirds. The right-hander is coming off one of his best starts of the season, pitching 6 shutout innings in a win over the Reds this past Friday. Pallante has a 2.45 ERA in 10 career games (3 starts) against the Cubs.
Imanaga Back From IL
Imanaga is coming off the IL to make the start in today’s series finale. He hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since May 4th because of a hamstring injury. Imanaga went 4.1 innings and threw 72 pitches in his final rehab start with Triple-A Iowa, and he was sharp in that game with 8 strikeouts and no runs allowed.
Look out for Cardinal killer Ian Happ this afternoon. He went deep on the first pitch of last night’s game and now has 27 homers and a .936 OPS in 113 career games against the Redbirds. Happ is also 4-for-10 lifetime against Pallante.
My Pick
Today is one of my favorite situational spots in baseball betting, and I see enough data on my side to take a shot on the first five under.
The under in the first five innings is 6-2 in Cardinals weekday afternoon getaway day games this season, including 5-1 when it’s getaway day for both teams like it is here.
It’s also noteworthy that 91% of the bets are on the over in this game, but there has been some line movement towards the under this morning.
I like both starters’ chances of at least being serviceable, and with a high first five inning total of 5.5 today, that very well could be enough to get this bet home. I’m going to tack on both teams to score in the game to give me a better price.
Pick: Same Game Parlay priced at -125 on DraftKings - Under 5.5 in the first five innings AND Both teams to score 1+ runs in the game (bet to -130)
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