St. Louis Cardinals vs Chicago Predictions July 20, 2023: Steven Matz vs Marcus Stroman
On Thursday, July 20th at 8:05pm ET, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs will face off in a NL Central showdown at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. This four-game
Game outlook
On Thursday, July 20th at 8:05pm ET, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs will face off in a NL Central showdown at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. This four-game series opens with Steven Matz (ERA 4.86) pitching for St. Louis and Marcus Stroman (ERA 2.88) pitching for Chicago. The Cardinals have the upper-hand in the season series 3-2, as they took two out of three games from the Cubs back in May. However, Chicago will open as the betting favorite at -121, with the line remaining unmoved.
Cubs Put on Impressive Showing, Aim for Series Win Against Nationals
On Wednesday night, the 44-50 Chicago Cubs hosted the Washington Nationals in a three-game series to decide a winner. The Cubs followed up a 7-5 defeat on Monday with an impressive 17-3 victory on Tuesday, claiming 14 runs in the seventh and eighth innings. This made the fourth win for Chicago in nine games, leaving them 7.5 games behind the Brewers. As of July, the Cubs have a .257/.330/.393 batting average with 20 extra-base hits and 15 home runs in 491 at-bats; whereas, their pitching staff has a 5.29 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, and .262 batting average against in 126 innings of work. The bullpen has a 4.81 ERA and a 4.80 FIP in 48.2 innings during the month. On Thursday, Marcus Stroman will be taking the mound. The 32-year-old right-hander is 10-6 with a 2.88 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 101/42 K/BB ratio in 118.2 innings across 20 starts in 2023. He is coming off a 10-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, where he held the Sox to just three hits and one run in his six innings of work, punching out three batters along the way.