Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (52-51) vs San Diego Padres (55-47)
Time: 6:45pm CT Thursday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network
Probable pitchers: Sonny Gray (9-4, 4.04 ERA) vs Yu Darvish (0-2, 6.08 ERA)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Cardinals -137, Padres +112
Total: 8.5 (over -102, under -119)
Cards, Padres Begin Four-Game Series
The St. Louis Cardinals return home to face the San Diego Padres in the first of four-game series on Thursday night at Busch Stadium.
The Cards are seemingly headed toward selling at the trade deadline after an ugly 1-5 road trip to Arizona and Colorado. The chances appear very slim for the Redbirds to be in contention down the stretch, and if they have any realistic hope to do so, they need to do major damage in these four games against the Padres. The Cardinals trail San Diego by 3.5 games for the final NL Wild Card spot, and they would need to climb over San Francisco and Cincinnati as well.
Gray Needs Major Bounceback
Sonny Gray will head to the hill looking to rebound after getting hammered in his last start. The right-hander got lit up for 9 runs (8 earned) on 11 hits in just 3.1 innings in Arizona this past Saturday.
Keep an eye on Manny Machado in this one. The Padres slugger has a .344 average, a .955 OPS, and 2 home runs in 32 career at-bats against Gray.
Padres’ Bats Slumping
The Padres head into this series in a bit of an offensive funk. They head to St. Louis after scoring a total of just 7 runs in dropping two of three in Miami.
Yu Darvish will be on the mound for Mike Shildt’s club in the series opener. The veteran right-hander has struggled since making his season debut earlier this month after recovering from an elbow injury. Darvish has made three starts and compiled a 6.08 ERA with 8 strikeouts and 7 walks in 13.1 innings.
My Lean
I expect Gray to bounce back with a good outing here. He hasn’t had two bad starts in a row all season, and the Padres are not swinging the bats well right now.
Darvish seems ripe for the picking, but the Cardinals are in a bad way right now. Their season is just about cooked, and I’m getting the vibe that the players sense it.
I’m not going to bet this personally because a Darvish blowup is certainly in the range of outcomes for this game, but if forced to make a bet, I’d take a stab on the first five under. I think Gray does his job, and my gut tells me Darvish can hold the Cardinals at bay.
Lean: Under 4.5 in the first five innings at -125 on DraftKings
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