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The St. Louis Cardinals take on the Tampa Bay Rays. Check out our MLB odds series for our Cardinals Rays prediction and pick.
Packy Naughton will open this game for the Cardinals, while Corey Kluber takes the bump for the Rays.
Packy Naughton has pitched fewer than 12 innings this season, sometimes opening for the Cardinals and consistently making short appearances in games. He has pitched over three innings in only one appearance this season, over two innings only twice. He has a 3.09 ERA, so he has been competent thus far, but his sample size is very small and hard to use as a basis for any Cardinals Rays prediction based on the current MLB odds. This is going to be a bullpen game for St. Louis barring an unforeseen plot twist.
Corey Kluber has a 3.73 ERA, but he has been better than that number might suggest. Kluber has had one atrocious performance this season — three innings pitched, eight runs allowed against the Angels on May 10 — plus one mediocre outing on April 22 against the Red Sox in which he pitched five innings and allowed four runs. In those two starts, Kluber has allowed a majority of his total runs for the season: 12 of 21. In his other eight starts, Kluber has allowed just nine runs. Kluber has been excellent 80 percent of the time this season for the Rays. Given his struggles in recent years after his glory days with Cleveland several seasons ago, this is a great bounce-back story being written by Kluber. It's a great reason to take Tampa Bay in a Cardinals Rays pick.
Courtesy of FanDuel, here are the Cardinals-Rays MLB odds.
MLB Odds: Cardinals-Rays Odds
St. Louis Cardinals: +1.5 (-182)
Tampa Bay Rays: -1.5 (+150)
Over: 7.5 (-115)
Under: 7.5 (-105)
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Why The Cardinals Could Cover the Spread
The Cardinals were able to contain the Rays' bats on Tuesday night in the first game of this short interleague midweek series. They can do so again, even with a bullpen game. The Rays have not been a consistent hitting team this season. The losses of Joey Wendle and Austin Meadows have hurt, and while Tampa Bay continues to get great pitching, there are real concerns that the Rays' offense will leave them in a difficult spot when the playoffs roll around. St. Louis is a very solid team, firmly in playoff position in the National League. A difficult loss on Tuesday night won't get this team down. The Cardinals are good at responding to adversity and can win a low-scoring game against the Rays on Wednesday night.
Why The Rays Could Cover the Spread
After winning Tuesday night in extra innings on a walk-off home run, the Rays — who played great defense to keep the Cardinals from getting a multi-run lead in the 10th inning — will come into this game very confident. They will think that Corey Kluber can shut down the Cardinals and continue a very solid 2022 season. Kluber has gotten his career back on track, and though he might have an occasional rough start, he has earned the benefit of the doubt with the way he has helped the Rays' starting rotation this season.
Final Cardinals-Rays Prediction & Pick
These are two good teams, but Kluber is an established starting pitcher who is simply easier to trust in this situation than the Cardinal bullpen.
Final Cardinals-Rays Prediction & Pick: Rays -1.5
