Cincinnati Reds vs. St. Louis Cardinals Series Betting Preview

The Cincinnati Reds will travel back home to Great American Ball Park after a brutal road trip. They lost all seven of their games on the road, being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. 

That extends their losing streak to nine games and three straight series sweeps. The Reds sit at the very bottom of the NL Central, and MLB, with a record of 2-11.

On Friday, the Reds will host the St. Louis Cardinals at 6:40 p.m. The Cardinals have been playing great baseball and are at the top of the NL Central division with a record of 7-3. They are on a two-game winning streak and have one more game against the Miami Marlins to go for the series sweep on Thursday night. 

Let’s take a look ahead at Friday night’s showdown of the NL Central leading Cardinals and the bottom of the NL Central Reds.

Betting Trends

The Cardinals are 4-1 against the spread in the past five games. The Reds are 0-5 against the spread in that same time frame. St Louis is 4-2 so far this season in their away games against the spread. Both teams’ score totals have gone OVER in two of their past five games.

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Expected Pitching Matchup

The Reds are expecting to start young star Hunter Greene in Game 1 of the series on Friday night. He has started the season with a record of 1-1 with an ERA of 4.35 and thirteen strikeouts. He went 5.1 innings, giving up five hits and two runs in a loss his last time out against the Dodgers. 

Lefty Steven Matz will be taking the mound for the Cardinals. He is also 1-1 and bounced back from a rough first game, going 5.2 innings with zero runs given up against the Brewers. In his first outing of the season, he was peppered for nine hits and seven runs in only three innings pitched.

By the Numbers

Cincinnati has struggled this season and it is showing greatly on both offense and defense. They rank last in win percentage, run differential, slugging percentage, and many other stat categories. On defense, they rank last in walks given up per game, opponent strikeouts per walk, and opponent WHIP.

For St. Louis, they rank second in win percentage, home runs per game, and RBIs per game. Their offense ranks fifth in total run differential at +20. On the defensive side of the ball, they rank first in opponent plate appearances, second in opponents hits for extra bases, and fifth in opponent runs per game.

Expected Outcome

St. Louis will win these games, and it won’t likely even be close. On the Reds’ road trip, they couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end, and their pitching lacks experience. The Reds may be able to steal a game, but they will definitely lose the series. This Reds team doesn’t know how to win with the team that they put on the field, and they won’t be figuring it out against one of the best teams in baseball.