Diamondbacks vs. Cardinals prediction and odds for Tuesday, April 18 (Cards Get to D-Backs' Shaky Bullpen)

Last year, the St. Louis Cardinals were the NL Central champs, but right now, they’re buried in last place in the division at 7-10.

It’s likely that they’ll find their footing and climb up those standings with a few teams falling back, but the Arizona Diamondbacks took them down yesterday. The Diamondbacks are 10-7 after that win and still in first place in the NL West after finishing fourth in the division last year. 

The Diamondbacks got a grand slam from Pavin Smith, a fourth-year-pro,  last night to help take Game 1 of this series and for Game 2, they’ll look for a strong start from a rookie, Drey Jameson.

The Cardinals turn the ball over to Jordan Montgomery who is 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA on the season. Jameson is 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA, but this is only his second start despite it being his fifth appearance. 

Here are the odds for Arizona and St. Louis tonight. 

Diamondbacks vs. Cardinals odds, run line and total

Diamondbacks vs. Cardinals prediction and pick

Jordan Montgomery has been really good since coming to St. Louis last season. He has only given up five earned runs in 18.1 innings with 17 strikeouts with five walks.

He doesn’t get a huge amount of swing and miss with a 29th percentile whiff rate and 28th percentile chase rate. Though he’s still very successful without it and I don’t expect him to stop having big success. 

Drey Jameson on the other hand doesn’t look built for sustained success in the rotation this season. He has a 1.46 ERA and a 4.71 FIP, which points to some series regression coming down the pike. He went four scoreless innings with four strikeouts and no walks in his first start of the year against Milwaukee on April 12. That all sounds good, but between his FIP and a batting average on balls in play of .207, I expect a rough start tonight as those numbers start to regress. 

The Diamondbacks are 20th in OPS against left-handers, like Montgomery and if they don’t get length from Jameson have a bullpen ERA of 4.63 which is 23rd in baseball.

I’ll take the Cards to win at home, and do so comfortably. 

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change