St. Louis Cardinals vs. Cleveland Indians – 8/29/20 MLB Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Cleveland Indians and the St. Louis Cardinals meet in interleague action in an MLB matchup from Busch Stadium on Saturday.

The Cleveland Indians will try to build on a 14-2 beatdown of the Cardinals on Friday. Franmil Reyes went 3 for 4 with a home run, a double and five RBIs while Carlos Santana and Tyler Naquin each had two-run home runs. Jordan Luplow, Yu Chang, Roberto Perez and Delino DeShields each had an RBI as well with DeShields and Perez each going 3 for 5 with DeShields adding a double as well. Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez each went 2 for 4 with a double while Cesar Hernandez, Sandy Leon and Mike Freeman each had base hits to finish off the Tribe’s offense as a team in the win. Triston McKenzie allowed two runs on three hits while striking out three over four innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Cameron Hill got the win to improve to 1-0 while Adam Plutko pitched four innings of relief for the save. Carlos Carrasco starts here and is 2-3 with a 4.50 ERA and 39 strikeouts this season. This will be Carrasco’s second career start against St. Louis.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to bounce back after their loss to the Indians on Friday. Dexter Fowler’s 2nd inning home run was the lone scoring the Cards would do as he accounted for both of St. Louis’ RBIs as a team in the loss. Paul DeJong went 3 for 4 at the dish and Brad Miller went 2 for 3 with a double to finish off St. Louis’ offense as a team as the Cardinals had just six hits as a team in the losing effort. Daniel Ponce de Leon took the loss, falling to 0-3 after allowing four runs on two hits while failing to get out of the first inning. Jack Flaherty will start here and is 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA and 12 strikeouts this season. This will be Flaherty’s second career start against Cleveland.

Cleveland is 9-3 in their last 12 games overall and 8-0 in their last 8 road games while the under is 6-2-1 in their last 9 interleague games. St. Louis is 25-12 in their last 37 games as a home favorite and 4-0 in their last 4 Saturday games while the over is 3-1-1 in their last 5 games against the AL Central. The under is 9-2-1 in the last 12 meetings between these two teams.

It’s hard to pick a side here as the Indians have been playing the much better baseball lately while the Cardinals have the historically more trustworthy pitcher in Flaherty, who will be on an increased pitch count here. I think the runs are going to be a bit more scarce than what we saw on Friday and a pitcher’s duel could be brewing here which is what Carrasco could use for some confidence. Give me the under here.