St. Louis Cardinals vs Philadelphia Phillies Prediction 9-15-23 MLB Picks

The Philadelphia Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals meet Friday in MLB action from Busch Stadium. The Phillies are fresh off a series versus the Braves, losing three of four games. As for St. Louis, they played the Orioles in their last set and won two of three matchups. Check back all season long for free MLB picks at Sports Chat Place. 

Philadelphia Phillies 

The Phillies had a tough time with the Braves this week, winning 7-5 Monday but falling otherwise 10-8, 7-6 and 4-1 in the remaining three matchups. In Wednesday’s loss, Philadelphia’s Bryson Stott provided the lone RBI, Kyle Schwarber posted the run, and no player had more than one hit. 

In the starting pitcher role for the Phillies on Friday it’ll be Aaron Nola. In his 29 starts this year Nola is 12-9 with a 4.64 ERA and 185 Ks in 176.1 innings. Nola is 3-2 with a 5.40 ERA over his last seven starts. 

St. Louis Cardinals 

Over on the Cardinals’ side, they did pretty well against the Orioles this week. St. Louis lost 11-5 in the opener of that series but came back for wins 5-2 in game two and 1-0 in the finale. In the rubber match victory, the Cardinals got a solo homer from Richie Palacios as the eventual deciding run in the fourth inning. 

It’ll be Zack Thompson in the starter slot for the Cardinals on Friday. Over 22 games (six starts) this year Thompson is 5-5 with a 4.06 ERA and 59 Ks in 51.0 innings. In his last seven starts Thompson is 3-2 with a 3.71 ERA. 

ANDREW’S FREE PICK 

I’ll take a stab on the Cardinals here. This one’s probably going to come down to what the starters do, though. Thompson hasn’t been too bad over his last three starts, totaling eight earned runs, 16.0 innings, 17 hits and seven walks in that time. Thompson is 2-0 in his last pair as well. Looking at Nola, he’s been a little rocky over his last pair at 0-1, giving up 11 earned runs in 9.0 innings on 15 hits and three walks. I do like Nola to at least flirt with a quality outing in this opener, though. St. Louis has four or more runs in nine of their last 11 games, so if they can keep that up the Cards will be in good shape.