Cardinals vs. Brewers prediction and odds for Friday April 7 (Keep trusting Milwaukee's offense)

This is likely to be the battle in the NL Central this year. The St. Louis Cardinals, who won the division last year, and the Milwaukee Brewers who finished second. This is their first matchup of the season, Game 1 of a three game weekend set. The Cardinals head up to Milwaukee at 2-4 after getting swept by the Atlanta Braves, while the Brewers just swept the Mets to get to 5-1. 

The Cardinals need to put a stop to this losing streak, and lucky for them, Jack Flaherty is up in the rotation. He is 1-0 and yet to give up an earned run. The Brewers counter with Brandon Woodruff. 

Let’s take a look at the odds for this NL Central rivalry. 

This will be Jack Flaherty’s 100 start of the season and in No. 99 he got a great result. The Cardinals got a 4-1 win against Toronto behind his five scoreless and hitless innings. The only problem was he walked seven in that start and only struck out four. His control has to be a concern coming into this start against the Brewers who just scored 26 runs across a three-game series against the Mets. 

Milwaukee is seventh in team OPS and No. 3 in walks, so they’ll be patient against Flaherty to see if he does have command issues and they’ll take advantage of free passes.

The team lineup is being powered by Brian Anderson right now. He has a 1.621 OPS with three home runs and 10 RBI. Rookie Garrett Mitchell also has three homers with a 1.214 OPS. 

I can’t bet against this Milwaukee offense right now, especially with the concern about Flaherty despite his scoreless first start. Though I do think the most value is on the over, not the run line with a pretty big favorite. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change