The Red Sox make the trip to St. Louis to face the Cardinals! Both teams have been inconsistent, but the Red Sox are the better team and the Cardinals have struggled overall as a team more. Our MLB odds series has our Red Sox Cardinals prediction, odds, and pick for Friday.

The Red Sox have been solid overall at 22-21. Statistically, the Red Sox are solid on offense with their bats in the top half of the MLB. Tyler O'Neill, Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Rafael Devers are all talented players and have been solid to a varying degree behind the plate and it is showing up so far this season. In comparison, their pitching has been red-hot up to this point, and is the best staff in the MLB. Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, and Garrett Whitlock have made up a very good pitching staff with all five varying from good to great overall. The Red Sox have shown their potential this season, but they have struggled to find some consistency.

The Cardinals have struggled this season and they have an 18-25 record. The Cardinals have struggled across the board on both offense and defense. It is a massive reason behind their struggles this season because they can not find much consistency across the board as a team. Brendan Donovan, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and Willson Contreras have at least tried to stand out on a bad offense. On the mound, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn, and Sonny Gray have been solid for a unit that has struggled as a whole this season. This will be an interesting matchup because the Red Sox are the better team overall than the Cardinals.

Here are the MLB Odds, courtesy of FanDuel. 

MLB Odds: Red Sox-Cardinals Odds

Boston Red Sox: -1.5 (+140)

Moneyline: -112

St. Louis Cardinals: +1.5 (-170)

Moneyline: -104

Over: 8 (-110)

Under: 8 (-110)

How to Watch Red Sox vs. Cardinals

Time: 8:15 pm ET

TV: Bally Sports Midwest / New England Sports Network

Stream: fuboTV (Click for free trial)

Why The Red Sox Will Cover The Spread/Win

The Red Sox are starting Brayan Bello on the mound and he has a 4-1 record, a 3.13 ERA, and a 1.07 WHIP. He's allowed 13 runs on 24 hits with nine walks and 27 strikeouts through 31.2 total innings so far this year. Through the six games that he has started this year the Red Sox are 5-1. In his last start, he pitched five innings and allowed two runs on four hits with two walks and one strikeout in a Red Sox win. Bello has had a very good season and gets a favorable matchup against the Cardinals and their struggling offense.

The Red Sox's offense has been solid to start the season. They are 14th in team batting average at .242 after finishing last season with a .258 batting average. The offense is led by Rafael Devers, Tyler O'Neill, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Jarren Duran in most of the offensive categories behind the plate. Devers leads in batting average at .281 and in OBP at .383. O'Neill leads in home runs at 10, Rafaela leads in RBI at 23, and then Duran leads in total hits at 46. The Red Sox have been playing decent offense behind the plate, but this is a decent matchup against Gibson with how well he has played this season.

Why The Cardinals Will Cover The Spread/Win

The Cardinals are putting Kyle Gibson on the mound where he has a 2-2 record, a 3.67 ERA, and a 1.20 WHIP up to this point in the season. Through 49 innings, he has allowed 21 runs on 39 hits with 20 walks and 40 strikeouts. In his eight appearances this season, the Cardinals have gone 3-5. In his last start, Gibson pitched five innings where he allowed two runs on three hits with four walks and seven strikeouts in a Cardinals loss. This will be an interesting matchup for Gibson because he has been solid, and the Red Sox have also been around the middle of the pack behind the plate.

The offense for the Cardinals has struggled across the board this season. They are 24th in team-batting average at .225 after finishing last season with a .250 batting average. Masynn Winn, Willson Contreras, and Nolan Arenado lead the way for the Cardinals in most of the batting categories. Winn leads in batting average at .281, and in OBP at .346. Contreras then leads with six home runs and Arenado leads the way in RBI at 21 and in total hits at 42. This offense has struggled and this will be a tough matchup against Brayan Bello on the mound for the Red Sox.

Final Red Sox-Cardinals Prediction & Pick

The Red Sox are the better team in this game, but the difference is that Gibson has been a decent pitcher for the Cardinals and can slow down a Red Sox offense that has been okay at best. The Cardinals do not have much of an offense on their own and Bello should have a solid game because of that which makes the game a pitching duel. Expect the Cardinals to keep it close and cover at home.

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Final Red Sox-Cardinals Prediction & Pick: Cardinals +1.5 (-170)