The Los Angeles Angels take on the St. Louis Cardinals. Our MLB odds series has our Angels Cardinals prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Angels Cardinals.
The MLB season is just one month old. Teams which have started poorly have five months to sort things out. To that extent, it's not too early to panic. Consider the Seattle Mariners last year. They looked dead in early June but then won 14 games in a row to transform their season and eventually make the playoffs, snapping a multi-decade drought. The St. Louis Cardinals are no strangers to the late-season push. They have turned on the jets in August and especially September on multiple occasions in recent years. They know how to close.
One problem: If they're too far behind, a good finishing kick won't really matter.
The Cardinals are a shocking 10-20 through 30 games. No one saw this coming. The Cardinals have displayed a lot of flaws — teams don't lose 20 of 30 for only one or two reasons — but it is noticeable that their offense has been very poor. The pitching has not been particularly good, but it shows up a lot more when the offense isn't able to start games well and create a cushion for the pitching staff. The inability to generate comfortable leads in most games has reduced the margin for error for the pitchers, and the pitchers have clearly not handled the pressure. This doesn't mean the pitching staff gets a free pass, but the hitting is what needs to improve in order for everything else to come together. There are 132 games left in the season, but the Cardinals are staring up in the standings at every National League team. Having to climb past 11 teams will be difficult if St. Louis can immediately shrink the gap in the standings.
Here are the Angels-Cardinals MLB odds, courtesy of FanDuel.
MLB Odds: Angels-Cardinals Odds
Los Angeles Angels: -1.5 (+126)
St. Louis Cardinals: +1.5 (-152)
Over: 7.5 (-115)
Under: 7.5 (-105)
How To Watch Angels vs Cardinals
TV: Bally Sports West (Angels) / Bally Sports Midwest (Cardinals) / MLB Extra Innings
Stream: MLB.tv
Time: 7:45 p.m. ET/4:45 p.m. PT
*Watch Angels-Cardinals LIVE on fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
Why The Angels Could Cover The Spread
The Angels have Shohei Ohtani on the mound. It's true that Ohtani had a disastrous fourth inning against the Oakland A's in his most recent game, but we can all understand and appreciate that such innings are outliers and not indicative of Ohtani's quality. He is still one of the best pitchers in the game. He gets incredible late movement and bite on his pitches. Going up against a limited and struggling St. Louis batting order, Ohtani has to like his chances of being able to dictate how this game is played and how many opportunities the Cardinals are able to generate on offense.
Why The Cardinals Could Cover The Spread
The Cardinals aren't doing much of anything right, but the case for them is simple enough: This is not going to go on forever. The Cardinals have talent. Nolan Arenado. Paul Goldschmidt. Tyler O'Neill. Willson Contreras. These are not chumps. These are accomplished ballplayers. They are going to thrive soon enough. Even if Ohtani pitches well, let's keep in mind that the Angels are not a proven team. They have a leaky bullpen and several holes in their own batting order. St. Louis doesn't have to score six runs to win this game. Four might be enough.
Final Angels-Cardinals Prediction & Pick
The Cardinals are a bad team right now, but the laws of averages suggest they will get rolling before too long. They're not going to fall below a .300 winning percentage, are they? Surely it has to turn around for them.
Final Angels-Cardinals Prediction & Pick: Cardinals +1.5
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