Reds vs. Cardinals Sunday Pick
The St. Louis Cardinals continue to own the Cincinnati Reds. The Redbirds will go for a three-game sweep of their National League Central rivals on Sunday at 2:15 p.m. ET but they’ll need to win with their fifth starter to do so. Will Miles Mikolas lead them to victory?
Game Snapshot & Odds
907 Cincinnati Reds (+135) at 908 St. Louis Cardinals (-150); 8 runs
Sunday, April 22, 2018
2:15 p.m. ET, Busch Stadium
TV: CIN (FSO); STL (FSMW)
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Public Betting Trends
Oddsmakers from online sportsbook YouWager currently list the Cardinals as a -150 favorite. As of this writing, 71% of the betting tickets wagered at online sportsbooks are on the Cardinals to beat the Reds on the money line. This information is subject to change, however, so be sure to check out our MLB Public Betting Page for updated figures on this game.
Reds’ Castillo coming off encouraging outing vs. Brewers
Luis Castillo yielded four runs in 6 2/3 innings Monday in a victory over the Brewers.
Castillo was terrific for six innings, but he was left in to give up two singles, a walk and then a double before being pulled in the sixth and both runners he left on base came around to score. That was unfortunate for Castillo’s ERA; it was down to 5.31 after six innings, but it’s back up to 6.75 now. It was still an encouraging outing for the righty.
Cardinals’ Mikolas gets another opportunity to shut down Reds
Miles Mikolas turned in seven innings of one-run baseball to beat the Reds on Saturday.
He struck out four, walked two and yielded four base hits. The only mark against him was a solo dinger by catcher Tucker Barnhart in the fifth inning. It was an efficient outing for Mikolas, who needed just 83 pitches to get 21 outs. He moves to 2-0 with a 4.26 ERA through three starts. (Rotoworld)
MLB Betting Trends
Cincinnati
The Reds are just 2-14 in their last 16 games against the Cardinals and have dropped 64 of their last 93 meetings with their NL Central rivals in St. Louis.
St. Louis
The Cardinals are 7-1 in their last eight games overall, are 5-1 in their last six games coming off a win, and are 7-1 in their last eight games versus the rest of the NL Central.
Prediction:
The under is a perfect 4-0 in the last four meetings between these two teams and with neither team tearing the cover off the ball, I like the combined score to fall under again on Sunday. Granted, the Cardinals used the long ball to beat the Reds yesterday but they still managed only four runs (same as their total on Friday when they scored four runs in the first two innings and were shut down the rest of the way). This St. Louis offense tends to be boom or bust but Castillo is the Reds’ most-talented starter so I’ll bank on the Cards being a “bust” today.
The Pick: Reds/Cardinals under 8