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Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals MLB Picks, Odds, Predictions 7/22/2021

Chicago Cubs (47-48) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (47-48)
July 22, 2021 7:15 pm EDT
The Line: St. Louis Cardinals -125 / Chicago Cubs +115; Over/Under: 8.5
(Get latest betting odds)

The Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals meet in an NL Central division matchup in MLB action from Busch Stadium on Thursday.

The Chicago Cubs will look to rebound from a 3-2 loss in 10 innings to the Cardinals on Wednesday. Rafael Ortega went 2 for 3 with a triple and an RBI while Eric Sogard added a double and an RBI as well to cap off the scoring for Chicago in the losing effort. Jason Heyward had a pair of doubles while Willson Contreras, Javier Baez and Nco Hoerner each had a base hit to finish off the Cubs’ offense as a team in the defeat. Kyle Hendricks allowed two runs on eight hits while striking out three over 6.1 innings of work, not factoring in the decision. Craig Kimbrel took the loss in relief, falling to 1-3 on the year. Adbert Alzolay will start here and is 4-9 with a 4.59 ERA and 83 strikeouts this season. This will be Alzolay’s first career start against St. Louis.

The St. Louis Cardinals will attempt to build on their extra innings win over Chicago from Wednesday. Harrison Bader went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI while Dylan Carlson had a double and an RBI and Yadier Molina had an RBI of his own to finish off the scoring for the Cards in the winning effort. Tyler O’Neill and Tommy Edman each had two hits while Paul Goldschmidt added a double. Nolan Arenado and Paul DeJong each had base hits as well to cap off the offense as a team for the Cardinals in the win. Adam Wainwright allowed one run on six hits while striking out five over seven innings of work, not factoring in the decision. T.J. McFarland got the win in relief to improve to 1-0 on the year. Kwang Hyun Kim will start here and is 5-5 with a 2.87 ERA and 60 strikeouts this season. In his career, Kim is 1-0 with a 0.93 ERA and 8 strikeouts against the Cubs.

Chicago is 5-15 in their last 20 games overall and 3-11 in their last 14 road games while the under is 12-4-1 in their last 17 games as a road underdog. St. Louis is 6-2 in their last 8 home games and 3-13 in their last 16 division games while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 Thursday games.

I get the case that could be made both ways, but I’m looking at the under here. Both Alzolay and Kim are pitchers that are for the most part playing better than their record would indicate. I think we end up seeing a bit of a pitcher’s duel and in a division war no less, so give me the under here.

Chris Ruffolo's Free Pick: Under 8.5

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Chris Ruffolo

Chris joined the Sports Chat Place team in August 2016 and has a proven system that combines multiple analytical and situational statistics and trends to give out thousands of winning picks over the last three years with winning records across all of the top leagues, Follow Chris Ruffolo on Twitter @ruffthepickdawg

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