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The St. Louis Cardinals take on the New York Mets. Check out our MLB odds series for our Cardinals Mets prediction and pick.
Miles Mikolas gets the start for the Cardinals, while Trevor Williams takes the mound for the Mets.
Miles Mikolas is a National League Cy Young candidate. It's early in the season, but if you were to come up with a top three in the N.L. Cy Young chase, Mikolas simply has to be there. It's not even a debate. Mikolas has a sparkling 1.49 ERA. He gave up two runs in 3 2/3 innings to the Pirates in his season debut on April 9. Since then, he has been dominant. He has given up five runs in his last 38 2/3 innings. That's very close to one run given up every eight innings of work. Mikolas has given up more than one run only once in his last six starts, and that was a game in which he allowed two runs in 7 1/3 innings on April 30 against the Diamondbacks. Mikolas has pitched at least 5 2/3 innings in five of his last six starts, so he is not only shutting down opponents; he is eating up innings while doing so. That's a Cy Young candidate by any measurement, and it's a good starting point for any Cardinals Mets prediction.
Trevor Williams has a 5.73 ERA. He has made five appearances so far this season and has pitched a total of just 11 innings. He has not pitched more than 3 2/3 innings in any single game in 2022. He has had three rough outings and two scoreless appearances. The Mets are trying to fill a gap in their rotation by piecing together Williams with the rest of the bullpen.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Cardinals-Mets MLB odds.
MLB Odds: Cardinals-Mets Odds
St. Louis Cardinals: -1.5 (+184)
New York Mets: +1.5 (-225)
Over: 8.5 (-105)
Under: 8.5 (-115)
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Why The Cardinals Could Cover the Spread
They have a red-hot pitcher. Miles Mikolas is as good as it gets in the National League right now. He is simply locked in and pitching brilliantly each time he takes the mound. He might be due for a clunker, but until he serves up a bad performance, it just doesn't make sense to bet against him.
The Cardinals also just won a series against a San Francisco Giant team which had been playing really well when it came to St. Louis for a weekend series. St. Louis thrashed Carlos Rodon, who entered Sunday Night Baseball in The Lou with a 1.80 ERA. The Cardinals hammered him and scored 15 against the Giants. St. Louis stumbled at home against the Orioles last week, losing a series to Baltimore, but the team quickly regrouped and has to love this pitching matchup. Trevor Williams is not particularly impressive or imposing. This is a game set up for the Cardinals to win.
Why The Mets Could Cover the Spread
After St. Louis played its Sunday Night Baseball game against the Giants, it had to fly directly to New York. We have often seen teams play on Sunday Night Baseball and then, with the lack of a normal Sunday-Monday turnaround (all other teams get to play an afternoon getaway game), perform poorly in their Monday game. The Cardinals could get snared by this scheduling trap in which a team plays in one location on Sunday night and then another on Monday night.
The other reason to pick the Mets here is that after losing a weekend home series to the Mariners, this team will be very motivated to get things right. This series against Seattle over the weekend was one of the first real speedbumps in what has been a generally impressive start to the season for manager Buck Showalter's team. Timely pitching and timely hitting did not emerge with the regularity we have seen from this ballclub. The course correction — snapping a bad stretch of play — is something to consider in a potential Cardinals Mets pick.
Final Cardinals-Mets Prediction & Pick
The Mets will be motivated, but the pitching matchup is just too lopsided to ignore. You can get plus money with the Cardinals on the run line, so why not go for it in this game?
Final Cardinals-Mets Prediction & Pick: Cardinals -1.5
