Cardinals Will Win Series Opener Monday At Giants

The St. Louis Cardinals (9-13) begin a 4-game series with the San Francisco Giants (8-13) Monday at Oracle Park and both teams are off to rough starts in 2023.

St. Louis is 4-6 overall in the last 10 games and have lost back-to-back series. San Francisco is 3-7 in the last 10 but won two straight vs. the New York Mets this weekend to split their 4-game series.

The Cardinals (-125 moneyline) give LHP Jordan Montgomery (2-2, 4.84 ERA) the start for the series opener Monday and the Giants (+105 ML) counter with RHP Alex Cobb (0-1, 2.79 ERA).

Cardinals At Giants Odds (DraftKings Sportsbook)

Betting odds for the St. Louis Cardinals at the San Francisco Giants Monday, April 24th at DraftKings.

The basic numbers are disappointing but Montgomery's pitching peripherals suggest he'll come around. Montgomery has a 2.88 FIP ("fielding independent pitching") and a .333 BABIP.

FIP is more predictive than ERA and BABIP is a luck-based metric. I.e. Montgomery has solid plate command but the balls hit in play are just finding holes.

San Francisco is 2-9 overall as home underdogs vs. left-handed starters since last season. The Giants are losing 5.6-2.6 on average in those games and has a -54.6% return on investment.

Cardinals lefty Jordan Montgomery pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St Louis, Missouri. (Joe Puetz/Getty Images)

Also, San Francisco's lineup cannot hit lefties. The Giants rank 28th in both wRC+ (68) and wOBA (.271), 22nd in ISO (.123), 29th in BB/K rate (0.19), and 24th in hard-hit rate (27.8%), per FanGraphs.

More importantly, St. Louis's bullpen is much better than San Francisco's. The Cardinals' relievers are better by K-BB% (19.9-16.0%), FIP (4.38-3.05), HR/9 rate (1.40-0.69), and WAR (1.2-0.0).

The public is mostly split on this Cardinals-Giants game in the consensus betting market, according to Pregame.com. But, two-thirds of the money is on St. Louis's ML, which indicates the Cardinals are the sharp side Monday.

BET: St. Louis (-125) ML at DraftKings, up to -135

The St. Louis Cardinals' odds at the San Francisco Giants Monday, April 24th as of 3:30 p.m. ET from DraftKings.