St. Louis Cardinals vs. Kansas City Royals – 8/26/20 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Kansas City Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals meet in an interleague matchup from Busch Stadium on Wednesday.

The Kansas City Royals will look to build off of a 5-4 win over the Cards on Tuesday. Ryan O’Hearn and Ryan McBroom each had two RBIs with O’Hearn going 3 for 4 with a home run and McBroom went 2 for 4 at the dish. Maikel Franco and Cam Gallagher each had a double while Adalberto Mondesi, Hunter Dozier and Whit Merrifield each had a base hit to finish off the offense for KC in the victory. Matt Harvey allowed all four runs on five hits over 2.2 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Josh Staumont got the win to improve to 1-1 while Trevor Rosenthal closed out the 9th for his 7th save of the season. Jakob Junis will start here and is 0-0 with a 4.00 ERA and 4 strikeouts this season. In his career, Junis is 0-0 with a 2.45 ERA and 15 strikeouts against St. Louis.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to bounce back after a disappointing finish in their loss on Tuesday. Tommy Edman had a double and two RBIs while Brad Miller and Paul DeJong each had an RBI to finish off St. Louis’ offense as a team in the defeat with DeJong going 3 for 4 at the dish in the loss. Harrison Bader added a triple and Yadier Molina chipped in a double while Dylan Carlson added a base hit of his own. Adam Wainwright allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out four over seven innings of work, not factoring in the decision. John Gant took the loss, falling to 0-1 on the year as a result. Dakota Hudson will start here and is 0-2 with a 3.46 ERA and 13 strikeouts this season. This will be Hudson’s second career start against Kansas City.

Kansas City is 11-27 in their last 38 games against the NL Central and 18-45 in their last 63 games following a win while the under is 9-1-2 in their last 12 games overall. St. Louis is 37-15 in their last 52 games against a team with a losing record and 1-4 in their last 5 game three matchups while the under is 4-1-1 in their last 6 games as a home favorite. The over is 5-2-1 in the last 8 meetings between these two teams.

We’ve seen these teams that come out of the COVID breaks come out hot, and the Cardinals have been one of those teams, but Dakota Hudson just hasn’t been able to find the form that he had for a ton of last season as it’s just not coming together. Jakob Junis has given up two runs in each of his first two starts without making it past the 5th inning, but after how the bullpen looked on Tuesday and if Junis can hang some zeroes on the board, I think the Royals have a shot for another upset here. Give me the Royals and the plus money in this one.