Cardinals vs. Cubs MLB Picks: St. Louis Holds the Cards in Chicago

The red-hot St. Louis Cardinals travel to take on a Chicago Cubs team that has surprised as of late. Read on for our Cardinals-Cubs MLB picks for Monday.

The Cardinals have swept back-to-back series with rather dominant showings against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. Prior to that, they won two of three against the Milwaukee Brewers. St. Louis is having a nice season at 69-51 thus far, five game ups in the NL Central.

The Cubs have been better in the second half but tend to struggle against better teams. They did just take two out of three against the Brewers, however, and have won seven of their last 10 games.

Here are my MLB picks and predictions for Monday’s game between the Cardinals and Cubs (odds via BetRivers and DraftKings Sportsbook).

Cardinals vs. Cubs Game Info

Date/Time: Monday, Aug. 22, 8:05 p.m. ET
TV: Bally Sports Midwest, Marquee Sports Network
Location: Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL
Weather: 68 degrees, 95% humidity, 2.5-mph winds

Cardinals vs. Cubs Odds Analysis

The Cardinals are surprisingly as low as -162 at BetRivers and as high as -175 at FOX Bet with 90% of the tickets and handle coming in on St. Louis. The Cubs are anywhere between +138 and +145.

The total is set at between 8 and 8.5 across the board. 67% of the tickets and 64% of the cash are currently on the Over.

Cardinals vs. Cubs Projected Pitchers

Jordan Montgomery (6-3, 3.29 ERA, 1.07 WHIP) vs. Drew Smyly (5-6, 3.67 ERA, 1.25 WHIP)

The Cardinals couldn’t ask for much more out of Montgomery He is 3-0 with a 0.54 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in three starts since the trade from the New York Yankees, with wins over the Yankees, Brewers, and Rockies. He threw seven innings of shutout ball against the Cubs when he was with the Yankees back on June 11.

Smyly has been one of the better pitchers for the Cubs this season. He’s allowed two earned runs or less in five of his last six starts, but the outlier was a five-spot put up by the Giants on July 30.

Cardinals vs. Cubs Picks

Check out the latest comprehensive and most trusted Sportsbook Reviews by SBR.

Cardinals vs. Cubs ML Pick

Cardinals (-162)

The Cardinals are severely undervalued against the Cubs, even at this price. They have the sixth-best batting average in the league (.258) and that jumps up to a third-best .273 against left-handed pitching. On the other hand, the Cubs are in the middle of the pack at .243 overall but just .235 against southpaws, 23rd in MLB.

That shows up in the records as well as the Cardinals are 19-9 against left-handed starters and the Cubs are 14-20. On top of that, the Cardinals are 15-5 against losing teams in the second half while the Cubs are 8-11 against winning teams in that same span.

Cardinals vs. Cubs O/U Pick

Under 8 (+100)

The total is more of a toss-up than the ML but I believe in these pitchers. The Under is 11-4-1 in Smyly’s 16 starts and 13-11 in Montgomery’s 14 — but 3-0 in his three stellar starts with St. Louis.

The Cardinals can score, as they did against Colorado and Arizona recently, but they’ve also been held to five runs or less 75 times this season. I can see a 5-2 or 4-3 win for St. Louis in Chicago, so take the even money on the Under.

Cardinals vs. Cubs Prop Pick

Goldschmidt Over 1.5 Total Bases (+102)

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt is the heavy favorite to win the NL MVP Award this season. He has a league-best .340 AVG and 1.059 OPS. And he’s even better against left-handed pitchers, batting .435 with an OPS of 1.375.

Goldschmidt had three or more total bases in seven of his last 10 games, including four or more in six of those games. You can even go up the ladder with Goldy on FanDuel Sportsbook, as he is +190 to record 3+ total bases.

Where To Bet on Cardinals vs. Cubs Picks

FanDuel Sportsbook
Caesars Sportsbook
DraftKings Sportsbook
PointsBet
BetMGM

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Cardinals-Cubs picks from 8/22/2022 at 1:22 p.m. ET