Kansas City Royals vs St Louis Cardinals Prediction, Pick and Preview, April 12 (4/12): MLB

Credit: photo by Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

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Preview

The Kansas City Royals travel to St Louis to play a 2-game series against the Cardinals on Tuesday night. The Royals split the opening series vs the Guardians and the Cardinals won it against the Pirates.

Kansas City Royals

The Royals won the first 2 games of the series against the Guardians but lost the last 2. The team is averaging 3.50 runs per game and were pounded by Cleveland allowing 10 and 17 runs in the losses. Andrew Benitendi leads the team with a .538 avg, 1 home run and 4 RBI.

Brad Keller had a great start of the season recording a 0.00 ERA and striking out 5 in 6 innings pitched.

Probable Pitcher: 

Daniel Lynch (0-0, 0.0 ERA) will take the mound in the 1st game of the short series for the Royals. Lynch won out in the battle for the final spot in the rotation over Brady Singer, who is expected to fill a hybrid role out of the bullpen. The 25-year-old lefty earned his place in the rotation despite an uneven spring in which he surrendered four home runs and struck out seven over 12.1 innings. He was 4-6 with an ERA of 5.69 and 55 strikeouts in 15 appearances in his rookie season in 2021.

St Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals got their first lost of the season in the third game of the series. They put themselves ahead in the game real quick in the first inning with a scarifice fly from O'Neil and a two-run homer from Nolan Arenado but after that the Pirates grand slam came and the Cards couldn't picked up since then.

The starter Steven Matz had a terrible first game allowing 9 hits and 7 runs in just 3 innings but he also had 5 strike outs.

Probable Pitcher:

Dakota Hudson (0-0, 0-0 ERA) will be on the mound for the Cardinals in the 1st game of the 4-game series. Hudson's recovery from September 2020 Tommy John surgery limited him to just one late-season start in 2021, but the Cardinals will be counting on him to serve as a full-time member of the rotation during the upcoming campaign. He worked two scoreless frames and covered 40 pitches in the Cardinals' 4-3 win over the Marlins in spring training. He has 2 starts against the Royals in his career and allowed only 2 runs in 12 innings.

BETTING TRENDS

Kansas City are 1-5 SU in their last 6 games against St. Louis.

The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Kansas City's last 6 games on the road.

St. Louis are 10-4 SU in their last 14 games at home.

St. Louis are 5-2 SU in their last 7 games when playing at home against Kansas City.

Prediction

The Cardinals offense is looking good so far as they have scored 19 runs total in their first 3 games of the season. The Royals got pounded by the Guardians in their last 2 games and they're now sending Daniel Lynch to the mound who had a 5.69 ERA last season. The Cardinals have the better team and Dakota Hudson is by far the better pitcher. Take the Cards.

PICK: Cardinals -1.5  (+110)

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