Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/6/2021

The Cincinnati Reds and the St. Louis Cardinals meet in an NL Central division matchup in MLB action from Busch Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Cincinnati Reds will look to build on their 5-2 win over the Cardinals on Saturday. Eugenio Suarez led the charge with a home run and two RBIs while Jonathan India went 2 for 4with a solo home run and a double. Tucker Barnhart added an RBI as well and Tyler Naquin had a double while Nick Castellanos also had a pair of hits in the win. Jesse Winker and Mike Freeman each had a base hit as well to finish off Cincinnati’s offense as a team in the winning effort. Tyler Mahle got the win to improve to 5-2 on the year after allowing two runs on five hits while striking out eight over seven innings of work. Lucas Sims closed out the 9^th for his 5^th save of the season. Wade Miley will start here and is 5-4 with a 3.26 ERA and 40 strikeouts this season. In his career, Miley is 3-5 with a 3.91 ERA and 41 strikeouts against the Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to the Reds in this one. Nolan Arenado accounted for both of the Cardinal RBIs, going 3 for 4 at the dish. Tyler O’Neill had a pair of doubles while Paul Goldschmidt had a triple and Tommy Edman had a double as well to finish off the offense for the Cards in the loss as St. Louis had just seven hits as a team in the losing effort. Johan Oviedo gave up two runs on three hits while striking out four over four innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Ryan Helsley took the loss, falling to 3-4 on the year as a result. John Gant will start here and is 4-3 with a 1.60 ERA and 39 strikeouts this season. This will be Gant’s second career start against the Reds although he has a 5-1 record with a 2.54 ERA in 19 career appearances.

Cincinnati is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall and 7-3 in their last 10 road games while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 games as a road underdog. St. Louis is 16-5 in their last 21 games as a favorite and 1-5 in their last 6 home games while the under is 14-7-1 in their last 22 home games against a team with a losing record.

This is one of the tougher games on Sunday’s card to call, as Gant’s been good at keeping his ERA down, but still puts himself in tough spots with runners on the basepaths. On the other hand, the Reds have been the better team in the last couple of games, but I don’t trust Wade Miley as far as I can throw him as this guy’s imploded more often than I care to remember. I’m going to back the under here, as I think Gant puts forth another low-scoring outing and Miley gives us at least a few solid innings before turning it over to the bullpen, but the under is the strongest lean I have for this game, probably not one I’m putting anything on.