Cardinals vs. White Sox prediction and odds for Sunday, July 9
Luis Robert has cooled off a bit before the All-Star break, but a matchup with Steven Matz reignite one of the hottest hitters in the game this summer.
By Josh Yourish
Considering how bad their divisions are the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox are two of the most disappointing teams in baseball this season and it’s fitting that they’ve split the first two as they head into the All-Star break with a rubber match, both well under .500.
The Cardinals are 37-52 after a 3-0 win yesterday and the White Sox are 38-53.
For the finale we’ll see Steven Matz against Lucas Giolito. Matz is 0-7 with a 5.02 ERA in 18 appearances for the Cardinals, 10 of those have been starts. Giolito on the other side is 6-5 with a 3.50 ERA in his 18 starts.
Let’s take a look at the odds for the rubber match of this interleague series.
Cardinals vs. White Sox odds, run line and total
Cardinals vs. White Sox prediction and pick
Steven Matz has struggled so badly that he got removed from the St. Louis rotation and has been a reliever since May 24. This will be his first start in a while and he has a 5.72 ERA as a starter this year.
It’ll be a test trying to stretch out at all if he is asked to go longer than two innings. Matz hasn’t pitched longer than 3.1 since May.
The White Sox are mediocre against lefties, 17th in the league in OPS, but they have a weapon in Luis Robert that could win this game and dominate Matz on his own. Robert is sixth in the league in OPS over the last 30 days at 1.040 with 12 home runs and against lefties for the season he has a 1.060 OPS with six of his 26 homers on the year off left-handed pitching.
In the last week, Robert has cooled down some, but I love this matchup for him to get Chicago out to an early lead against Matz before he is removed. Lucas Giolito has been solid for Chicago and will delay getting to their awful bullpen.
Chicago is 26th in bullpen ERA at 4.75 and St. Louis is 25th at 4.55, but the Cardinals will need more innings from their relievers and that’s more than enough reason to take the White Sox to win this one.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change