Atlanta Braves (2-1) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (1-1)
April 3, 2023 7:45 pm EDT
The Line: St. Louis Cardinals -105 / Atlanta Braves -116; Over/Under: 8.5
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The Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals meet Monday in MLB action from Busch Stadium. Atlanta is coming off a weekend series versus the Nationals. The Braves won the first two installments in that game, then on Sunday Atlanta fell by three runs. As for Saint Louis, they played Toronto in their opener series. The Cardinals split the first pair, then in the Sunday matchup Saint Louis bagged a five-run win. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place.
Atlanta Braves
The Braves opened up their season Thursday with a 7-2 victory over Washington. Atlanta would follow that up with a 7-1 win in the Saturday game two. On Sunday in the finale the Braves gave up four runs in the first inning and couldn’t come back on just four team hits in a 4-1 loss.
As starting pitcher for Monday’s matchup, the Braves will send out Charlie Morton. Over his 31 starts last year, Morton went 9-6 with a 4.34 ERA. In 172.0 innings he managed 205 strikeouts. Morton is a career 116-101 pitcher with a 4.03 ERA in 323 games (322 starts).
St. Louis Cardinals
Over on the Saint Louis side, they lost 10-9 to Toronto in their Thursday opener, but then bounced back for a 4-1 win in the Saturday matchup. In the Sunday rubber match, the Cardinals scored all of their runs in the first four innings during a 9-4 victory. St. Louis had 16 team hits in the win.
Jake Woodford will take the mound for the Cardinals on Monday. Last season in his 27 appearances (one start) Woodford went 4-0 with a 2.23 ERA. In 48.1 innings he had 24 Ks. Over 65 games (10 starts), Woodford is 8-4 with a 3.61 career ERA.
The Braves are 22-8 in their last 30 in game one of a series and 40-18 in their last 58 overall. Atlanta is 10-4 in their last 14 versus the NL Central.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals are 3-7 in their last 10 in game one of a series and 41-20 in their last 61 at home. St. Louis is 35-16 in their last 51 Monday games.
ANDREW’S FREE PICK
I’ll probably stay with Atlanta. This should be a pretty interesting series, though. The Braves got off to a great start this year (against an admittedly overmatched Nationals team), scoring 14 runs through their first two games. On Sunday Atlanta had a rough first inning and couldn’t really get the bats going after that. The good news is that the bullpen did fine, going 3.1 innings with no hits, no runs and no walks between Michael Tonkin and Jesse Chavez. If the Braves offense comes back around in this one I think they’ll be in line for a win. Should be a good series overall regardless.
