Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (54-51) vs San Diego Padres (55-49)
Time: 6:15pm CT Saturday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network
Probable pitchers: Matthew Liberatore (6-7, 4.13 ERA) vs Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.73 ERA)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Cardinals -154, Padres +126
Total: 9 (over -115, under -106)
Cards Go For Three In A Row
The St. Louis Cardinals continue their pursuit of the San Diego Padres when the two teams meet tonight in the third of a four-game series at Busch Stadium.
The Redbirds won the first two games to pull within 1.5 games of San Diego for the final NL Wild Card spot. They also trail the Reds and Giants by a half-game in the Wild Card standings.
Rested Liberatore Returns
Matthew Liberatore returns to the mound tonight after getting some extended rest coming out of the All Star break. The left-hander last pitched on July 11th against the Braves where he got roughed up for 6 runs and 9 hits in 3 innings.
Willson Contreras hopes to keep his hot bat rolling. Over his last five games, Contreras has been on fire going 10-for-19 with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 6 runs scored, and 6 RBI’s.
Padres In A Rut
Hopefully the Cardinals have caught the Padres at the right time, as San Diego has dropped four in a row. The Padres haven’t been playing good ball for quite a while now, as they are 20-25 since June 4th.
Randy Vásquez gets the start, and he has been pulling a Houdini act much of the season to maintain a 3.73 ERA. Vásquez has a 50:47 K:BB ratio, and he has a 5.92 xERA, 5.39 FIP, and 5.95 xFIP.
My Pick
I host Domesticated Gamblers every Friday on the STL Sports Central YouTube channel, and my co-hosts Tito Ulrich and Shawn Surwillo cashed a couple incredibly sharp bets yesterday.
Tito’s best bet was for Athletics rookie Nick Kurtz to have 3 or more total bases at +190. Kurtz then proceeded to have one of the greatest games in the history of baseball, going 6-for-6 with 4 home runs, 6 runs scored, and 8 RBI’s.
And despite everything seemingly pointed against the Cardinals last night with Miles Mikolas up against Nick Pivetta, Shawn used his gut instinct and identified it as a spot for the Redbirds to come through - and that they did with an important 3-0 victory.
We are your home for St. Louis sports gambling talk, so make sure to catch our show each Friday!
One other thing Shawn mentioned yesterday is he doesn’t like the spot for the Cardinals here on Saturday. An extended break for a young pitcher could very well lead to rust, and I buy the argument that we are going to see Liberatore struggle tonight.
Hopefully the Cards can knock around the fraudulent Vásquez, but I’m willing to tail Shawn and take a shot on the Padres to win here. The last time the Cardinals won the first two games of a four-game series, it was against the Cubs last month and everybody was feeling good - until the Cards got shut out each of the next two games against their rivals. And now just as some fans are starting to believe again, I’m willing to bet the rug gets pulled out from under the Cardinals tonight in a frustrating loss.
Pick: Padres on the moneyline at +126 on DraftKings (bet to +120)
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