baseball | Wednesday, May 3, 2023 12:29 PM

St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Best Bet: Ohtani To Notch Fifth Win Of 2023

Sam Cox

St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Best Bet: Wednesday, May 3rd

The St Louis Cardinals host the Los Angeles Angels for the second of a three-game set on Wednesday night. Los Angeles claimed a 5-1 victory on Tuesday, with the Cardinals falling to a ninth loss in 11 games. Already languishing at 10-20, St Louis are nearing a point of desperation despite there being over 130 games still to play.

The Angels reside at 16-14. Where the Cards are 10 back in the National League Central, the Angels are only 2.5 back in the American League West and have reason to believe this season can finally end their playoff drought.

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St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Preview
St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Best Bet

St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Preview

Thu, May 04. 00:45 (UK time)

Much of that hope is based on Shohei Ohtani. Time is of the essence for the Halos with Ohtani hitting free agency at season’s end. The two-way phenom had his roughest outing of the year against the Athletics last time out, but the Angels still managed to win the game. He is also hitting at an elite level with a 144 OPS+.

Los Angeles is 5-1 in Ohtani’s starts. He is yet to be burdened with a loss, and has claimed the win in four of his last five pitcher outings.

The Cardinals are a decent offensive team by their quality of contact, but they have scored just seven runs in their last four games. Pitching has been a massive issue all year, too. Miles Mikolas shutdown the Giants in his last start, yet he still sports an xERA of almost six.

Only five other pitching staffs have allowed a worse xwOBA than the Red Birds. The Angels, meanwhile, have a bullpen which is equipped to back up Ohtani, having pitched to a 3.02 ERA on the season.

It’s clear the Angels deserve to be favoured for this one, even though they are on the road. Sure, the Cardinals are bound to improve at some point this season, but a matchup with Ohtani is not when we are expecting that to happen. His struggles against Oakland are no more than a blip.

St Louis Cardinals vs Los Angeles Angels Best Bet

The runline is tempting, but that leaves us vulnerable to the Angels bullpen letting this game get close. Los Angeles has won a few one-run games already this season. The moneyline is too short a price to be worth backing on its own.

Apart from an early departure against the Red Sox, Ohtani has gone over six innings in every start. Even if the Cardinals happen to score a couple off him, he will pitch deep enough into this game to qualify for the win.

Mikolas improved against the Giants, but this Angels line up is a much sterner challenge for the veteran right-hander. Back Ohtani to get the Angels ahead early on, and their bullpen to convert that into a fifth win of the season for the MVP favourite.