The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals will square off on Thursday at Rockwood Field in Birmingham Alabama. This is the first meeting between these two teams this season. After this game, they will take Friday off, and play two more in St. Louis over the weekend.
The San Francisco Giants are 36-39 on the season. San Francisco has dropped to fourth in the National League West. The Giants are coming off back to back losses on the road at the Cubs. San Francisco is 4-6 over their last 10 games.
For the St. Louis Cardinals, they are 36-37 on the season. The Cardinals have dropped back to back games to the Miami Marlins. Despite that, St. Louis is still in second place in the National League Central, but a long ways behind the Milwaukee Brewers.
The St. Louis Cardinals are -120 in this game over the San Francisco Giants.
San Francisco Giants
Keaton Winn will take the mound for the San Francisco Giants. Winn is 3-7 on the season with a 6.67 earned run average. The youngster has struggled this season, throwing 52.2 innings, and striking out 46, and walking 19.
The Giants are 12th in all of Major League Baseball in scoring. They score 4.4 runs per game. San Francisco is averaging 8.4 hits per game, and have a .247 batting average on the season. The Giants have hit 72 homeruns, which ranks 17th in all of the league.
The top offensive threats for the Giants this season have been Thiaro Estrada, Matt Chapman Jorge Soler and Michael Conforto. Estrada has nine homeruns, while Chapman and Soler sit at 8 on the season. Chapman leads the team with 18 doubles.
St. Louis Cardinals
Andre Pallante will get the baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. This is just his 5th start of the season. He has thrown 27.1 innings this season, and struck out 21 batters, and walked 12. He is 2-3 with a 4.61 earned run average on the season.
St. Louis will likely be without Nolan Arenado, who left the game on Wednesday after getting hit by pitch. The Cardinals offense will need him, as they have struggled all season. St. Louis is scoring 3.9 runs per game, and have a team batting average of .236 on the season. The Cardinals have cranked 71 homeruns.
Maisyn Winn is having a fine rookie season for St. Louis, He is hitting .295 on the season. Arenado is down to .256, while Paul Goldschmidt sits at .230 on the season. The Cardinals will host the Braves for three and Reds for four after this series.
Cardinals Top Giants
Neither starting pitcher is showing a ton of confidence in the teams here. But, neither offense has been great. This is going to be an interesting game. In the end, we are going to go with the St. Louis Cardinals. They score late and win this game. When betting on this game, we are going to take the Cardinals -120 over the Giants. Enjoy the game and best of luck with your Major League Baseball betting!