Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks prediction and odds for Tuesday, July 22nd (Steven Matz is rounding into form)

Steven Matz had a rough start to the season, but is that clouding our judgement of him right now?

Matz takes the mound for the Cardinals against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday in hopes of continuing to improve his season long numbers as the D-Backs struggle at the plate and fall further behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West race.

Arizona counters with Merrill Kelly on Tuesday, can the Cardinals find answers at the plate?

Here are the odds for this NL matchup:

Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks odds, run line and total

Cardinals vs. Diamondbacks prediction and pick

Matz has pitched to a 3.10 ERA in five appearances (three starts) over the last month. He will face an Arizona lineup that is 21st in OPS over the last 30 days, per MLB.com, and is bottom half of the big leagues in OPS against left handed pitching.

Overall this season, St. Louis still bolsters an elite offense. The team is sixth in wRC+, but the pitching staff hasn't been able to answer the call and has been the cause for the sub-.500 record. I expect the offense to continue to show up against Kelly, who has had negative regression looming all season.

While Kelly has a 3.22 ERA, his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is far higher at 3.85 with a career high walk rate of more than three batters per nine innings. Against an elite Cardinals offense, I'm going to side with the slight road underdogs to hand him a poor start.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change