Astros vs. Cardinals prediction and odds for Wednesday June 28 (An early lead for Houston)

Yesterday, the St. Louis Cardinals got a strong outing from Jordan Montgomery and beat the Houston Astros in Game 1 of this three-game interleague series. St. Louis is still last in the NL Central, Houston’s former division, at 33-45 while the Astros are third in the AL West at 42-37. 

Today, the Astros will look to avoid losing back-to-back series with Cristian Javier on the mound. Javier is 7-1 with a 3.25 ERA in 15 starts.

The Cardinals will counter with Miles Mikolas who is 4-5 with a 4.23 ERA. After the win last night the Cardinals are the favorites tonight. Let’s check out the odds. 

Astros vs. Cardinals odds, run line and total

Astros vs. Cardinals prediction and pick

Honestly, this matchup could be decided right away and because of that my favorite bet for this one is in the very first inning.

Miles Mikolas has not been great for St. Louis this year, but a lot of that is tied to his awful first inning performances. He has an ERA of 7.31 in the first which is one of the worst in all of baseball.

He’s given up 27 hits in 16.0 first innings this year and the Astros are third in first inning runs per game, 0.72. 

On top of that, Cristian Javier is lights out in inning No. 1 with a 1.20 ERA, just two runs allowed in the first inning all season. The Astros will likely end the first with the lead and they are +330 to lead after the first inning which I’ve already bet. Even without Yordan Alvarez in the lineup they should be able to jump on the Cardinals. 

As for the rest of the game Javier has been strong and Houston has a top 10 bullpen in terms of ERA, so I like the Astros to hang onto their early lead and take Game 2 as an underdog. 

Follow all Josh Yourish’s bets HERE

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change