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The St. Louis Cardinals look to earn a split of their four-game series with the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night, and we have you covered with our best Cardinals vs. Cubs prediction based on the odds from our top MLB betting sites.
Chicago won the first two games of this series and entered Saturday on a three-game winning streak. But four unanswered runs gave St. Louis a come-from-behind 5-4 victory in Game 3 and a chance to salvage a split of the series on Sunday Night Baseball.
The Cubs are -152 moneyline favorites with first pitch from Wrigley Field scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Sunday night.
Cardinals vs. Cubs player props
MLB odds via our best MLB betting sites; pick confidence based on a 1-to-5-star scale.
- Justin Steele Under 5.5 strikeouts (-125 via Betway) ????
- Seiya Suzuki Under 1.5 total bases (-130 via Betway) ???
- Tommy Pham Over 0.5 RBIs (+200 via Betway) ???
Cardinals vs. Cubs expert picks
MLB picks made Sunday at 7:05 a.m. ET.
Cubs southpaw Justin Steele has recorded six-plus strikeouts in five of his previous eight starts. However, he is just 2-2 in that span and has seen his ERA rise 0.67 points in his last three starts, while recording 16 or fewer outs in each.
His inability to get to the sixth inning limits his strikeout potential, and he does not figure to go deep in a game against a Cardinals team whom he has a career 1.376 WHIP in six starts.
Steele has also had difficulty recording strikeouts against the division rival, as his 7.4 K/9 rate in the six appearances are by far his lowest against any of the remaining three NL Central teams. That is enough to make this a four-star play, and a winning $10 wager would pay out $18.
Best odds: -125 via Betway | Implied probability: 55.56%
Seiya Suzuki was Chicago's most consistent power hitter in July, as he produced a .923 OPS and a team-high .299 batting average (minimum 16 games played). However, he is just 5-for-20 – all hits were singles – with seven strikeouts in his career against Miles Mikolas.
That lack of head-to-head success has me doubting Suzuki's ability to go over this projected total, even if he has multiple hits in three of the last four games.
While Mikolas does not miss many bats – he ranks in the lowest percentile of whiff percentage – he ranks in the top half of the league (59th percentile) in barrels, and it should take another multi-hit day for Suzuki to go over this projected total. Every winning $10 wager on this prop pay s $7.69 in profit.
Best odds: -130 via Betway | Implied probability: 56.62%
Tommy Pham has been on a tear since being traded to the Cardinals, batting .471 (8-for-17) with two extra-base hits and seven RBIs in four games. Pham has been slotted all over the Cardinals batting order (fifth, seventh, and eighth) in that short span, and we would upgrade this wager to a four-star play if he were to be slotted higher in the lineup.
Pham has a .932 OPS against left-handed pitchers compared to a .684 OPS against righties, and he should have further opportunities to drive in runs when batting behind Paul Goldschmidt, who has heated up with a 1.069 OPS over the last seven days.
With as hot as Pham has been in a Cardinals uniform, he deserves more than the one-in-three chance that the implied probability suggests of him driving in a run, and my $10 wager would return double that in profits ($30 in total) thanks to Betway's generous +200 odds.
Best odds: +200 via Betway | Implied probability: 33.33%
Cardinals vs. Cubs odds & game info
- When: Sunday, Aug. 4
- First pitch: 7:10 p.m. ET
- Where: Wrigley Field (Chicago, Ill.)
- How to watch: ESPN
- Favorite: Cubs (-150 via Betway)
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