The St. Louis Cardinals are just 1-6 over their last seven home games. After finishing up an unsuccessful 3-5 road trip on Wednesday, the Cardinals need to figure things out in a hurry with the Chicago Cubs coming to town for a three-game series starting on Friday.
Cubs vs. Cardinals 2018 odds: Slumping Cardinals slight home favorites for Friday night
The St. Louis Cardinals will try to get their season on track with a win over the Chicago Cubs in their series opener on Friday, with the sportsbooks making them small chalk.
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
St. Louis is a -115 home favorite in Friday’s series opener at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Luke Weaver will start for the home team facing Mike Montgomery and the Cubs who are -105 road underdogs.
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals
When: Friday, July 27, 8:15 p.m. ET
Where: New Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri
Betting Line / Total: St. Louis -115 / 8.5 Runs
St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals haven’t won a series since taking two of three games from the Arizona Diamondbacks back on July 4. Since then, St. Louis is 7-10 over its last 17 games, falling to 51-51 on the season. With Pittsburgh and Chicago surging in the NL Central and plenty of other teams sitting in front of the Cardinals in the Wild Card standings, time is quickly running out on St. Louis to start putting some wins together to stay in the hunt.
After leading the Cardinals to wins in nine of his last 10 starts in 2017, Weaver has struggled to find that rhythm in 2018. Weaver owns a 4.79 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP this season and St. Louis is 9-11 in his 20 starts per the OddsShark MLB Database.
Chicago Cubs
Chicago wrapped up a nine-game homestand with a 7-6 win over Arizona on Thursday afternoon, hitting two home runs in the bottom of the ninth to erase a two-run deficit and to secure the victory.
With the win, the Cubs are now 14-7 over their last 21 games including a 4-2 record on the road. The Cubs have eaten Weaver alive in his five career starts against them going 4-1 and batting .438 against him while averaging seven runs per game.
Friday night’s total is set at 8.5 runs. The total went OVER in all five of the games these two teams played in Chicago last week.
St. Louis leads this head-to-head series seven games to six so far in 2018. At 60-42 on the season, Chicago is currently nine games ahead of the Cardinals in the standings. This weekend’s series wraps up with Jose Quintana vs. Miles Mikolas on Saturday night and Kyle Hendricks vs. John Gant on Sunday night.
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