Game Information
St. Louis Cardinals (68-70) vs Athletics (63-75)
Time: 1:15pm CT Monday
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network
Probable pitchers: Sonny Gray (12-7, 4.19 ERA) vs Luis Morales (2-0, 1.19 ERA)
DraftKings Odds
Moneyline: Cardinals -139, Athletics +114
Total: 8 (over -110, under -111)
Cards, A’s Begin Series
The St. Louis Cardinals and Athletics play a Labor Day matinee on Monday to open a three-game set at Busch Stadium.
The Redbirds will be looking to turn around their recent home form, as they have won just one of their last seven series at Busch. The A’s have been decent on the road with a record of 34-35.
Gray Faces Former Team
Sonny Gray will be facing his former team that he pitched for from 2013 to 2017. The right-hander is looking to build off a terrific start against Pittsburgh his last time out where he gave up just 1 earned in 7 innings.
Gray is coming off a month of August where he posted a 3.48 ERA, which is a major improvement over his 7.81 ERA in July. The Cardinals are an outstanding 19-8 with Gray on the mound this season.
A’s Look To End Skid
The Athletics come to town on a three-game losing streak after getting swept by the Rangers. Even with the rough weekend, the A’s went 15-12 in August and are 21-13 since July 24th, which is tied for the best record in the American League during that stretch.
Luis Morales will start the opener for the Athletics. The rookie right-hander has been dynamite for the A’s since making his Major League debut on August 1st, going 2-0 with a 1.19 ERA over 22.2 innings in 5 games (4 starts). Morales tossed 7 shutout innings against the Tigers in his most recent outing this past Wednesday.
My Lean
This has the feel of an under game to me.
Morales has been a revelation for the Athletics so far, so I’m not confident the Cardinals are going to be able to get to him.
And this is a really tough travel spot for the A’s. They played in Sacramento at 3:05pm Central time on Sunday. The game lasted more than three hours, and then they had to hop on a long flight and be ready for this game Monday afternoon.
Look for Gray to have another strong start and keep this game low-scoring for at least the first five innings.
Lean: Under 4.5 in the first five innings at -125 on DraftKings
Eric Sontag hosts Domesticated Gamblers every Wednesday night 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