MLB Thursday July 7th Cardinals at Braves Betting Preview

Atlanta is aiming for a sweep heading into the July 7th Cardinals at Braves betting matchup. The home team has taken three in a row over St. Louis this week and has won 7 of their last 9 overall leading to a massive -225 line for Thursday night’s contest.

St. Louis is heading the opposite direction in the standings, losers of four in a row and six of their last seven to put them 3 GB from the Brewers in the NL Central. The Cardinals would seem to have a little value at +188, but their offense is not producing right now as they’ve been held to 1 run or less in 3 of their last 4.

St. Louis Offense in Neutral

The Cardinals haven’t gotten the best pitching in this series allowing 16 runs in three games, but when your offense has scored 3, 1, and 0 runs it makes it hard for wins to come by. The four contest losing streak overall is the longest of the year for St. Louis, who has also dropped their last 7 against Atlanta.

St. Louis is in their current offensive funk despite the fact that Nolan Arenado is red hot right now, going 12 for his last 24 with 3 HRs. Paul Goldschmidt is also hitting .364 (8-22) but there’s a big dropoff after that proving it takes more than two quality players to produce wins.

Matthew Liberatore (2-1, 5.66 ERA) will try his turn as the stopper and help St. Louis at least salvage one win this series. The rookie has allowed 4+ ER in 3 of his 5 career starts a big reason why St. Louis is a +188 underdog in the July 7th Cardinals at Braves betting contest.

Braves Coming On Strong

A 21-6 mark in June and continuing that success with a 5-1 start to July has the Braves right back in the thick of things in the NL East at just 2.5 GB from the Mets. Atlanta has won 9 of their last 10 home games against LH starters, and are 39-19 in their last 58 home games as a whole.

Austin Riley has gone 5 for his last 7 in this series with a HR, and is hitting .478 over the past week.  Dansby Swanson continues his hot hitting with a .370 clip over the past week as well as the Braves are up to the #5 scoring team in the majors.

Max Fried held St. Louis scoreless over 6.0 IP on Wednesday and Ian Anderson preceded that with 5.0 IP of 1-run ball on Tuesday. Now it’s Spencer Strider (4-2, 2.87 ERA) up in the rotation to continue the trend. The right-hander gave up just 1 hit over 6.0 IP in his last start and has held opponents to 2 ER or less in 5 of his last 6. That’s not something a St. Louis team struggling to score runs wants to hear.

Free July 7th Cardinals at Braves Betting Pick

Atlanta looks to be the way to go here and 77% of the betting public are taking that stance as well. Liberatore is inconsistent for St. Louis while Strider should put together another solid outing for the Braves. Backing Atlanta with a solid win here.

Free Pick: Atlanta -1.5 (-120)