Nationals vs Cardinals Betting Preview & Odds

Cardinals as Favorites

For the first time in a while, the St. Louis Cardinals have lost their hold on one of the National League’s three Wild Card spots, falling a half-game behind the Padres for the third spot and a game behind the Mets for the second.

So, it’s important that St. Louis rebounds from a series loss to the Pirates as the Cardinals visit the slumping Nationals for three games this weekend.

• The Nationals vs Cardinals betting lines have St. Louis as a -165 moneyline favorite and a +130 runline favorite in Friday’s series opener. The total is 7.5 runs.

The Cardinals were idle on Thursday after dropping two of three against the Pirates who St. Louis is just one game ahead of. Oliver Marmol’s team scored just three runs in the three games in Pittsburgh.

They should be able to get the bats going much more against a Nationals team that is starting to unravel after being in Wild Card contention for much of the year. St. Louis will also have three of its better pitchers on the mound this weekend which helps their MLB odds today.

Meanwhile, the Nationals were just swept by the Padres and were shut out in two of those games. Washington has been a pleasant surprise all season as a young team led by its impressive starting rotation.

But, the Nationals’ offense has gone cold and they have already started to sell off valuable pieces like reliever Hunter Harvey. The writing is on the wall for Washington and St. Louis needs to take advantage.

Gray Has Flown Under The Radar For St. Louis

While the Cardinals’ starting rotation has been disappointing on the whole, Sonny Gray has been a major bright spot after signing a three-year contract with a team option for a fourth year this past offseason.

He’ll start on Friday and the Nationals vs Cardinals betting lines are in favor of him bouncing back after a couple of rough starts. Gray got tagged for four home runs by the Braves in his last outing and has struggled throughout July but he still has a 3.54 ERA and is striking out over 11 batters per nine innings.

He hasn’t gotten as much recognition league-wide as he deserves, though, and Friday’s game is a perfect spot for him to bounce back against a cold Washington team that is in the bottom-third in most offensive categories. Maybe most importantly, the Nationals are dead-last in the Majors in home runs so they aren’t much of a threat to take Gray deep.

The key for Gray is to keep the ball out of the air. Teams have been hitting way too many flyballs and line drives against him during this recent rough patch. Gray is successful when he gets strikeouts and ground balls. Interestingly, he has only walked two batters in his last four starts in which he has a 6.17 ERA. The scores and odds MLB like Gray’s chances here.

Gore Is Going Through It

For most of the year, Washington’s MacKenzie Gore was on an All-Star-type trajectory. Now, as reflected by the Nationals vs Cardinals betting odds, he has cooled off dramatically. After posting a 3.26 ERA in his first 15 starts, Gore has a 7.84 ERA in his last five.

The major culprit for him has been walks. He walked 3+ batters in four of his last five starts. With the added baserunners, he has been forced to make more high-stress pitches and is both giving up more runs and not going as far into games.

It’s a deadly combination for a young starter like Gore who has electric stuff but needs to be more consistent from outing to outing. In his most-recent start, he threw 67 pitches in 2+ innings against the Reds.

That isn’t going to cut it in St. Louis which has a league-average offense that has ticked up over the past few months. Guys like Alec Burleson, Brendan Donovan, and Nolan Gorman are playing well and even though the Cardinals’ offensive numbers aren’t impressive, there are a lot of tough outs in that lineup.

Cardinals Should Cruise

If you want to use MLB betting trends to guide your pick in this case, take St. Louis to cover the -1.5-run spread on the moneyline at +125. The Nationals’ limitations are starting to come to the forefront and St. Louis is a motivated team trying to keep pace in the Wild Card battle.

Plus, Gray has big-time stuff and has the potential to totally shut down a mediocre offense, of which the Nationals certainly are.

For that reason, the under 7.5 runs (-110) is also a good bet. Gore and both teams’ bullpens are concerns for that bet but neither team has been lighting up the scoreboard as of late.

Nationals vs Cardinals Odds

For MLB score predictions, betting analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine

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