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The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves square off on Wednesday with first pitch set for 7:20 p.m. EST. The game takes place at Truist Park in Cobb County, Georgia and will be available to watch on ESPN. The Braves will have Max Fried on the hill while the visitors will send Miles Mikolas to the bump.
The Braves have been playing some stellar baseball in recent weeks, creeping up on what used to feel like an insurmountable lead the Mets had in the NL East. But Atlanta kept chipping away at it, winning 23 of their last 30 games, and now sit just 2.5 games back in the division. Fried hasn’t faced STL this season, but in three previous starts in his career he’s never lost to the Cards. This year he’s racked up an 8-2 record with an ERA below 3.00 and has allowed just 10 earned runs in his nearly last 50 innings pitched.
St. Louis comes into this one having dropped two straight to Atlanta and three in a row overall. The Cards have lost five of their last six games and have really shown that they struggle away from home. This season when they’re not at Busch Stadium, they have a record of just 20-23, which is just about their only split where the team is below .500. They’ve also struggled against the NL East this season, posting a 7-11 record, which is their only other metric where they sit with a losing record.
Cardinals vs. Braves
Pitchers: Miles Mikolas vs. Max Fried
First pitch: 7:20 p.m. EST
National broadcast: ESPN
Live stream: WatchESPN, ESPN app
Odds, picks & predictions
Run Line: Braves -1.5
Run total: 8.5
Moneyline odds: Braves -170, Cardinals +145
Moneyline pick: Braves -170
Atlanta is on a tear at the moment and nobody can seem to slow them down. They’re determined to close the gap at the top of the NL East to catch up to the Mets. St. Louis has Mikolas on the hill, which is good for them. But their record away from home this season and against the NL East has got to be concerning.
Player prop pick: Dansby Swanson over 1.5 hits (+175)
The former Vanderbilt standout has been playing great recently, earning three multi-hit games in his last five contests. He added just one hit last night too so he’s reached base safely in four of his last five games. In his career against Mikolas, he has 10 at-bats and has three hits against him, which is the best on Atlanta’s roster of players with more than seven at-bats against Mikolas.
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