Cincinnati Reds vs St. Louis Cardinals, Odds & Picks (August 21)

• Reds try to play through the drama, bounce back from collapse
• Which Anthony Descalfani will show up?
• Cardinals busy schedule continues

Reds vs Cardinals Odds

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Reds vs Cardinals Predictions and Picks

It’s hard to know what we’re going to get from Anthony Descalfani and while the same goes for Dakota Hudson, the Cardinals offense is performing a bit better than the Reds from top to bottom.

Pick:

St. Louis Cardinals to win 100

Betting record through 8/20/20 (17-14-1)

Trends

Reds are 4-1 in their last five as a road favorite

Cardinals are 0-4 in their last four home games as an underdog

Reds are 7-3 in their last 10 as a favorite

Reds are 1-4 in their last five road games vs. right-handed starter

Under is 4-0 in Reds last four road games with total set between 9.0-10.5

Over is 7-1 in Reds last eight games vs. NL Central

Under is 10-3 in Reds last 13 road games vs. a aright-handed starter.

Reds are 1-4 in the last five meetings between the teams

Under is 5-2-1 in the last eight meetings between these teams

Cardinals are 20-7 in their last 27 home games vs. team with a losing record

Cardinals are 2-5 in their last seven home games

Under is 15-3 in Cardinals last 18 games as home underdog

Under is 5-2 in Cardinals last seven vs. a team with a losing record

How to watch Cincinnati Reds vs St. Louis Cardinals

Trouble in Paradi … Cincinnati

If a shortened season that has already seen the Reds have to postpone three games because of Covid-19 wasn’t enough drama in Cincinnati, the team got some more in the worst way this week.

Cincinnati play-by-play man Thom Brennaman was caught using a homophobic slur on Wednesday during a Reds broadcast and subsequently had to apologize and has been suspended indefinitely.

Brennaman apologized and the Reds denounced his sentiments, but this is the last thing that belongs in baseball and truly one of the worst distractions a team could have that’s already underperforming its expectations.

The slumping Reds are 5-8 in their last 13 and suffered one of their most gut-wrenching defeats of the year on Thursday, giving up three runs in the ninth to lose. The bullpen has been Cincinnati’s Achilles heel this season.

While Iglesias had been nearly perfect his past four outings – striking out two in each game and never giving up a base runner – he struggled on Wednesday. The southpaw gave up two hits, one walk, and three earned runs in .1 innings to balloon his ERA to 7.71.

What’s It Going to Be Descalfani?

Anthony Descalfani has had two great appearances and one horrible appearance in 2020. He’s had absolutely nothing in between.

These were his stats in his first two outings: 11 innings, five hits, one walk, eight strikeouts, zero earned runs.

This was his line from his last start against Pittsburgh, the worst team in the MLB: two innings, nine hits including three home runs, two walks one strikeouts and nine earned runs.

After the contests, Descalfani said he thought it was the worst start of his life and didn’t know if he was tipping pitches or not. He and Derek Johnson went over the film and didn’t see anything as far as tipping pitches, but there are questions about it going into the game.

Still, if the Reds are going to get back in the playoff picture, Descalfanii is going to have to win the game against division rivals.

Home Sweet Home

The Cardinals are just happy to be in Busch Stadium. After having two consecutive weeks of games canceled and then playing eight games in five days in Chicago last week, the Cardinals played their first contest at home in nearly a month.

Dakota Hudson gets to make his second start at home this season and he hopes it goes better than the last when he gave up seven hits and four runs in 4.1 innings against the Pirates.