NL Central foes will continue a three-game series on Tuesday night with the St. Louis Cardinals taking on the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. St. Louis rolled to a 13-4 win in Monday's opener to cash in as a big -210 favorite. The Cardinals are comfortably atop the division at 75-54, while the Reds are well out of contention at 50-77.
As expected, the Reds have struggled in the 2021 season series with the Cardinals holding an 8-4 advantage.
St. Louis has transformed from Wild Card hopeful to division leader and World Series contender over the last two months, and picked up a third straight win on Monday as it rolled to a 13-4 victory over the Reds. The Cardinals went off for six runs in the second inning on Monday including a homer from Tyler O'Neill plus a two-run double from Tommy Edman and Lars Nootbars' two-run single, with Albert Pujols later going deep to continue his historical run.
Starter Miles Mikolas had one of his worst outings of the season, allowing four runs on six hits and one walk while striking out three in 4.1 innings of work. Chris Stratton picked up the win in relief with 1.2 scoreless frames. Corey Dickerson had a three-hit game with two runs scored and an RBI to help the offense out.
St. Louis is one of baseball's most profitable teams on the money line while going 72-56 on the run line. Overs are an even 62-62- for the Cardinals after their last five games all went over the betting total.
This red-hot offense is all the way up tp fourth in scoring at 4.88 runs per game on a .759 team OPS that ranks third-best in baseball. St. Louis pitching is also solid with a 3.83 combined ERA including a mark of 3.80 out of the bullpen.
Paul Goldschmidt has a good shot at both the NL MVP and triple crown with a .338/.421/.629 line, 33 homers and 105 RBI. Nolan Arenado has also piled up a whopping 6.8 WAR, batting .306/.370/.567 with 27 homers and 85 driven in.
Dakota Hudson is set to take the hill for his 24th start after beating the Chicago Cubs with seven innings of two-run ball last Thursday, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks while striking out four. The 27-year-old has gone 7-6 with a 4.23 ERA over 121.1 total innings.
Every position player for the Cardinals is he althy, with Jack Flaherty (strained shoulder) and Steven Matz (sprained knee) missing from the rotation. Relievers Alex Reyes (shoulder soreness) and Drew VerHagen (hip surgery) are out for the year.