One of the best rivalries in MLB will kickoff on Friday night when the Chicago Cubs visit the St. Louis Cardinals. These two NL Central teams have not yet met up so far during the 2024 season, and this will be a huge series in that division.
It has been a rough month of May for the Chicago Cubs, but they are still sitting at 27-24 on the young season. The Cubs are expected to be a division title contender, but they need to start winning games again.
St. Louis comes into this series with a ton of momentum after just sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in impressive fashion to begin the week. The Cardinals currently have a record of 23-26, but they appear to be rebounding after a very slow start to the year.
Chicago is coming into this game as moneyline betting favorites at -135, and the over/under line is set at 7.5 total runs.
Cubs Struggling to Score
If the Chicago Cubs are going to find a way to get back on track then this team will need to start scoring more runs. The Cubs haven’t scored more than three runs in the last six games, and a number of players in this lineup are struggling.
Christopher Morel is leading the way with nine home runs and 33 RBIs, but this team needs their stars to start hitting again. The Cubs have been dealing with injuries, but they have most of their biggest stars in the lineup.
Shota Imanaga will be making the start in this game, and he is 5-0 with a terrific 0.84 ERA so far this season. Imanaga will need to be nearly perfect for the Cubs to win this game.
Cardinals Coming Alive
After a slow start to the season, the St. Louis Cardinals are coming alive in a major way over the last few weeks. The Cardinals are finally starting to get some more pitching, and the offense is coming up with clutch hits.
Nolan Gorman is leading the Cardinals with eight home runs, and Brendan Donovan leads with 23 RBIs. St. Louis will need these players to have big hits, but they also need the best hitters in the lineup to show up.
Miles Mikolas will make the start on Friday night, and he has gone just 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA so far this season.
Cubs Get Win Over Rivals
The starting pitching matchup in this game just favors the Cubs in such a big way that it’s too hard to ignore. No one has been able to solve Imanaga this season, and the Cardinals don’t have enough power to do any damage.
Things have been going well for the Cardinals of late, but there are still a number of things that this team must figure out. St. Louis will battle tough against their biggest rivals, but that is about all to expect in this game.
Take the Chicago Cubs moneyline at -135 as they are going to win the series opener over their hated rivals in the NL Central Division.
