Mets vs Cardinals prediction, odds, pick, how to watch

clutchpoints.com

18 August 2023

The New York Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals. Our MLB odds series has our Mets Cardinals prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Mets Cardinals.

The St. Louis Cardinals continue to struggle, and it is fitting that they lost to the New York Mets on Thursday night in the first game of this four-game weekend series. If you had to pick the bigger disappointment of these two hugely disappointing 2023 teams, it has to be the Cardinals. The Mets have undeniably had a crushingly frustrating season, but the Cardinals' journey has been even worse from a number of vantage points. This has been a miserable year for Adam Wainwright in the final season of his career. It has been a season made more acutely annoying in St. Louis because the National League Central isn't very good and was there for the taking. The Cardinals expected to be a 95-win team this year, but even an 89- or 90-win pace probably would be good enough to win the division. The Milwaukee Brewers just got swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and are only eight games over .500 at 65-57 through 122 games. The National League Central champion might win only 86 to 88 games. The Cardinals should have walked to the division championship this year and instead completely imploded.

The New York Mets can at least tell themselves that as soon as star closer Edwin Diaz got hurt, their season's prospects took a huge hit. Justin Verlander was not healthy for a period of time. Things went wrong for the Mets to a certain extent, whereas the Cardinals were just plain bad. St. Louis is the bigger disappointment, and both teams are going to spend this series wondering what might have been. The San Diego Padres will join them in this National League tale of regret.

Here are the Mets-Cardinals MLB odds,

MLB Odds: Mets-Cardinals Odds

New York Mets: +1.5 (-156)

St. Louis Cardinals: -1.5 (+130)

Over: 9.5 (+100)

Under: 9.5 (-122)

How To Watch Mets vs Cardinals

For the inside story on the 24 people banned from MLB, listen below:

TV: SNY (Mets) / Bally Sports Midwest (Cardinals) / MLB Extra Innings

Stream: MLB.tv

Time: 8:15 p.m. ET/5:15 p.m. PT

*Watch Mets-Cardinals LIVE on fuboTV (click for a free trial)*

Why The Mets Could Cover The Spread

The Cardinals are not a good team. This very consistent franchise has simply had a year from hell. The Cardinals were and are so bad that they had to become sellers at the trade deadline a few weeks ago. They traded Jack Flaherty, Jordan Montgomery, and Jordan Hicks among their pitchers. They traded Paul DeJong to the Toronto Blue Jays. On the injury front, Brendan Donovan is out for the season. The Cardinals are playing out the string in mid-August, which was unthinkable before the season began. It's the reality of the situation right now. The Cardinals have looked absolutely terrible in their last two games, getting shut down by the Oakland A's on Wednesday and then by the Mets on Thursday in St. Louis. Nothing about this team is dependable, with the possible sole exception of Nolan Arenado, who has had a strong second half of the season after a frustrating first half. The Mets won the first game of this series on Thursday. They can carry momentum into Friday's second game.

Why The Cardinals Could Cover The Spread

The Cardinals are a bad team, but the Mets are sending pitcher Joey Lucchesi to the mound. He is being called up from the minor leagues to pitch this game. He has a 4.43 ERA and has been carrying around a knee injury for portions of this season. If ever there is a pitcher the Cardinal hitters can get healthy against, this is a good choice. The Cardinals' season has been a complete disaster, but they are going to win some games down the stretch against bad pitchers, and this is one of those times.