Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (51-46) at Arizona Diamondbacks (47-50)
Time: 8:40pm CT Friday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, Matrix Midwest
Probable pitchers: Andre Pallante (5-5, 4.49 ERA) vs Brandon Pfaadt (9-6, 5.16 ERA)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Diamondbacks -132, Cardinals +108
Total: 9 (over -103, under -118)
Cards Begin Second Half
The St. Louis Cardinals return from the All Star break tonight to take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first of a six-game road trip.
The Redbirds begin the second half 1.5 games behind the Padres for the final NL Wild Card spot, and the oddsmakers do not like the Cards’ chances of reaching the postseason. DraftKings has their make the playoffs odds listed as -280 for the No and +225 for the Yes.
Pallante Gets The Call
The Cardinals have assigned Andre Pallante to start the first game back from the break, which also allows him and his 63% ground ball rate to pitch one of the games at Coors Field next week against the Rockies.
Pallante has typically given the Cards a chance to win. He has allowed 3 earned runs or less in 9 of his last 11 starts, but he got bombed in the other 2 outings with 7 runs allowed in each of them. Pallante’s last start was a dreadful one against the Nationals with 7 runs allowed in 6 innings of work with just 1 strikeout.
Dbacks Can Mash
The Diamondbacks tend to play high-scoring games with the over cashing 54.8% of the time. That’s due in large part because of their imposing offense that ranks 4th in MLB with 5.08 runs per game. They also have a poor bullpen that ranks 27th in baseball with a 4.94 ERA.
Brandon Pfaadt makes the start tonight. The right-hander has been bad overall this season with a 5.16 ERA, but he is coming off a dominant outing in his last start at San Diego with 8 innings of 2-run ball with just 4 hits allowed and no walks.
My Pick
I’m turning to the player prop market for my play in this one and tailing my co-host Tito Ulrich from Domesticated Gamblers, which airs every Friday afternoon on the STL Sports Central YouTube channel with a gambling preview for the weekend. If you enjoy sports gambling, it’s a must-watch every week!
Tito has cashed five best bets in a row, all at plus money and four of those coming from the baseball player prop market. I’m going to tail his best bet from this afternoon’s show and put a unit on Brendan Donovan to have over 1.5 total bases at +110. There is a lot of data pointing to this as a strong play.
Donovan is 4-for-7 lifetime against Pfaadt.
He is hitting .333 with 2 home runs and a .910 OPS over the last two weeks, and he was able to stay hot with 2 more hits in the All Star Game on Tuesday.
And in 31 career plate appearances at Chase Field, Donovan is hitting .429 with a 1.023 OPS. That is Donovan’s highest OPS for any park with over 25 plate appearances.
Donovan must start and record at least one plate appearance for this bet to be valid on DraftKings.
Pick: Brendan Donovan over 1.5 total bases at +110 on DraftKings (bet to +100)
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