Sharp Money Says Braves Beat Cardinals In St. Louis Saturday

Published|Updated

The Atlanta Braves (79-48) are dominating the St. Louis Cardinals (72-54) this year. Atlanta took a 4-1 season series lead after blasting St. Louis 11-4 Friday in the series opener.

Atlanta is 7-1 in the last eight games and has won four straight while the Cardinals have alternated between winning and losing over the last six games.

St. Louis is out a six-game lead in the NL Central. The Braves have a 10-game lead in the NL Wild Card race and trail the New York Mets by 2 games in the NL East.

We're BACKING the ATLANTA BRAVES (-120) at DraftKings Sportsbook to win a 2nd straight vs. the Cardinals.

Betting Deets (DraftKings)

Moneyline: Braves (-120), Cardinals (-190)

Atlanta Braves Charlie Morton pitches against the Houston Astros at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images)

Starters

Atlanta: RHP Charlie Morton is 6-5 with a 3.99 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 135 1/3 innings pitched (IP) over 24 starts.

St. Louis: LHP Jordan Montgomery is 7-3 with a 3.08 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 140 1/3 IP across 25 starts while pitching for the Cardinals and New York Yankees.

Handicap

The Yankees recklessly sent Montgomery to St. Louis at the trade deadline and Montgomery has been locked in since joining the Cardinals.

Montgomery's 92-game score in a 1-0 victory Monday vs. the Chicago Cubs was a career-best. He pitched a complete-game shutout, getting all 27 outs in just 28 batters faced.

Also, Montgomery has won all 4 starts as a Cardinal and has allowed only 1 earned run in 25 2/3 IP. However, it's time to fade Montgomery against the reigning Super Bowl champs.

Atlanta's lineup has roughed up Montgomery in prior meetings. Montgomery has a 9.8% K-rate with a .322/.433/.645 expected batting average, wOBA and slugging percentage slash line in 41 plate appearances vs. current Braves batters, per Statcast.

There is a "Pros vs. Joe's" situation in the betting market. Three-fourths of the money is on the Braves whereas a slight majority of the bets are on the Cardinals at DraftKings per VSIN.com. Pro bettors put up a lot more dough than your average Joe so you typically want to follow the cash column.

Let's follow the sharp money and BET the ATLANTA BRAVES (-120) at DraftKings Sportsbook.

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Geoff Clark serves as OutKick’s sports betting guru. As a writer and host of OutKick Bets with Geoff Clark, he dives deep into the sports betting landscape and welcomes an array of sports betting personalities on his show to handicap America’s biggest sporting events. Previously, Clark was a writer/podcaster for USA TODAY's Sportsbook Wire website, handicapping all the major sports tentpoles with a major focus on the NFL, NBA and MLB. Clark graduated from St. John University.