Cardinals vs. Twins Wednesday Pick
The St. Louis Cardinals offense is in a deep funk but their pitching remains excellent. Will the Cards’ bats wake up when they wrap up a short two-game series versus the Minnesota Twins at 1:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday?
Game Snapshot & Odds
925 St. Louis Cardinals (-125) at 926 Minnesota Twins (+115); 9.5 runs
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
1:10 p.m. ET, Target Field
TV: STL (FSMW); MIN (FSNO)
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Public Betting Trends
Oddsmakers from online sportsbooks currently list the Cardinals as a -125 favorite. As of this writing, 62% of the betting tickets wagered at online sportsbooks are on the Cardinals to beat the Twins on the moneyline. This information is subject to change, however, so be sure to check out our MLB Public Betting Page for updated figures on this game.
Cardinals’ Mikolas coming off another gem of a start
Miles Mikolas allowed one run on five hits over 6 2/3 innings in Thursday’s win over the Padres. Mikolas struck out four and walked one on the evening. He almost snuck through seven scoreless frames, but a solo home run by Raffy Lopez with two outs in the seventh brought the dream to an end. In his first two starts of the year, Mikolas surrendered eight earned runs. He’s given up just five runs over his next five outings and will try to stay hot when he brings his 2.51 ERA and 0.96 WHIP into a road date with the Twins next time out.
Twins’ Lynn allows four runs in last start
Lance Lynn struggled again on Friday, yielding four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Angels. Given the decline in his peripherals last season, there was reason to believe Lynn would have some troubles this year, especially after the jump to the AL. Still, we didn’t see a 7.34 RA coming. He’s given up 43 hits and 25 walks in 34 1/3 innings, and at this point, there really isn’t much for him to build on
MLB Betting Trends
St. Louis
The Cardinals are now winless in their last five games against the Twins.
Minnesota
The under is 12-0-1 in the last 13 meetings between these two teams.
Prediction:
I took the under last night in this matchup and it covered easily but I’m wary of Lynn, even with the motivation of facing his former team. He owns a 4.87 SIERA to go along with a 4.04 ERA and everything but his groundball rate has been a disaster this year.
Meanwhile, Mikolas has been a revelation for the Cardinals. He pitched the last two years in Japan and when the Cardinals signed him, the St. Louis fan base was outraged by the team bypassing bigger free agents like Yu Darvish. All Mikolas has done since is post a 2.51 ERA with a microscopic 1.6% walk rate. Granted, he’s not striking out a ton of batters and his hard contact rate shows that he could be due for a regression at some point. But for now, I’ll take the better pitcher, even though he’s backed by a struggling offense.
The Pick: St. Louis Cardinals -125