The St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs meet Friday in MLB action from Wrigley Field.
This will be the first installment of a four-game weekend set between these rival teams. The Cardinals are coming out of a set versus the Reds this week. St. Louis won 7-5 Monday and 16-2 Tuesday but dropped the Wednesday game 4-3. As for the Cubs, they played the Pirates this week. Chicago won 8-7 Tuesday and 8-2 Wednesday. In the Thursday finale, Chicago was unable to notch the series sweep with a 6-2 loss. Check back all season long for free MLB picks and MLB predictions at Sports Chat Place.
St. Louis doesn’t have a ton of power hitters this season, but they’ve been doing a decent job scoring lately. Brad Miller leads the team with five homers and 19 RBI. Paul Goldschmidt has been quite reliable with a .337 batting average, 20 runs, 30 hits, three homers and 11 RBI. The Cards won’t have Dexter Fowler for this one however, as Fowler was placed on the IL as a coronavirus precaution.
For the Friday starting pitcher role, the Cardinals will go with Jack Flaherty. This season in his four starts, Flaherty is 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 18.2 innings. On his career, Flaherty holds a 21-19 record with a 3.14 ERA and 450 Ks in 387.1 innings of work.
Over on the Cubs’ side, they started out well on Thursday with a 2-0 lead in the top of the third, but gave up six unanswered runs after that. Kyle Schwarber, Jason Kipnis and Victor Caratini each had two hits, combining for two runs as well. Starter Alec Mills took the loss with 5.0 innings, seven hits, four earned, one walk and two strikeouts.
For the Friday starting pitcher, the Cubs will send out Yu Darvish. This season over seven starts, Darvish is 6-1 with a 1.47 ERA and 52 Ks in 43.0 innings. In his MLB career, Darvish is 69-54 with a 3.49 ERA and 1351 Ks in 1094.0 innings total.
The Cardinals are 6-2 in their last eight road games versus a right-handed starter and 23-9 in their last 32 during game one of a series. St. Louis is 4-11 in the last 15 versus a team with a winning record and 1-5 in their last six Friday games.
Meanwhile, the Cubs are 4-1 in their last five versus the National League Central and 8-3 in their last 11 games as a home favorite. Chicago is 17-8 in their last 25 overall games as a favorite and 2-7 in their last nine home games.
Pick: I like the Cubs a little better here, but this should be a fun game and a great starting pitching matchup to kick off the weekend series. Flaherty gave up one run in five innings versus Cleveland on Saturday with five strikeouts and one walk. As for Darvish, he posted a 1.09 ERA in August and had 40 strikeouts, earning him National League Pitcher of the Month honors. I like Darvish to keep it going here; overall this should be a tight, low-scoring and intense game.