The St. Louis Cardinals’ quest to overtake Milwaukee in the NL Central gets a huge test against the AL best New York Yankees on FOX Saturday game of the week. It may not be as stiff of a challenge as a few weeks ago with the Bombers struggling losing eight of 14 games since the All-Star break.
But the Yanks built up a big enough cushion in the AL East that a run of poor play hasn’t hurt them in the standings. Overall, though, they are no longer the best team in baseball being overtaken by the Dodgers, but they enter the series having won 66 percent of their games.
Yankees vs Cardinals Date/Time
The interleague matchup between the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals takes place on Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 7:15 p.m. ET from Busch Stadium. The game will air live on FOX with betting options for every game on the 2022 MLB schedule available at BookMaker.eu.
Yankees vs Cardinals Odds
New York Yankees (Check Back Later)
St. Louis Cardinals (Check Back Later)
Total (Check Back Later)
Season So Far…
The Yankees haven’t experienced many slumps this season, but maintaining the level of success they had through the first three-plus months was unrealistic. On July 8 they were a season-high 38 games over .500 and on pace to break the MLB record for wins in a season. However, since then they are just 9-13. A change of scenery might be good since the best home team in the majors dropped the final two games against Seattle and three of the last four at Yankee Stadium. They haven’t been as good on the road going 29-21, but that’s subjective for one of only two teams with 70 wins entering the weekend.
One thing that has been good all season is the offense. Led by MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge, who leads everyone with 43 homers and 93 RBIs entering the series the Yanks lead the majors averaging 5.35 runs. Judge belted 10 homers in his first 12 games after the pause. New York won five of the six games Judge homered in with the OVER at 4-2. They cashed the OVER for the fifth time in six games in the 7-3 loss to the M’s and the OVER is 9-3-1 in their last 13 games.
While the Yanks have a comfortable lead in their division the Cards are trying to track down Milwaukee while also staying in the playoff picture. They made up some ground over the last week winning five of six getting superb pitching to draw closer to the top spot at 56-48. In the five wins the staff allowed just six runs also tossing back-to-back shutouts against the Nats and Cubs. Still, you can’t have enough pitching and the Cards swing a deal with the Yankees at the deadline acquiring Jordan Montgomery, who is scheduled to start Saturday’s game.
While they aren’t as destructive at the dish the Cardinals have some brand name power. Paul Goldschmidt is in the NL MVP discussion boasting a .331 average with 26 homers after going yard against the Cubs on Thursday. Nolan Arenado has 20 bombs giving St. Louis the top corner infielders in the game. But Saturday will be about Montgomery, who makes his first career start outside a Yankees uniform. More on him below.
Probable Pitchers
The return of Domingo German (1-1, 6.39 ERA) made Montgomery expendable. Now if only he can put up like numbers to make it work. It’s been a struggle so far for German but it is a small sample size. He made his season debut after the break and has only pitched 12.2 innings.
He has gotten progressively better over his three starts giving up two runs on six hits in five innings in a win over Seattle last time out. And before injuries got in the way German had a dominant 2019 going 18-4 fanning 153 over 143 innings. One issue throughout his career has been home runs. He surrendered 30 in 2019 and has yielded four along with 13 other hits in his limited innings.
It has to be an awkward and difficult time for Montgomery (3-3, 3.69 ERA) changing teams earlier in the week. A 2014 draft pick of the Yankees, he spent his entire career in pinstripes reaching the bigs in 2017. He’s been durable making 51 starts over the last two seasons, but he really struggled in his last two outings giving up nine hits and eight runs in just 6.1 innings. While his overall numbers in July weren’t bad the results were. The Yankees went winless in his six starts during the month with Montgomery pitching to 4.91 ERA and 1.33 WHIP.
Yankees vs Cardinals Predictions
Teams that can hit the long ball against starters prone to giving them up have me leaning toward the OVER. The Yankees stumbled a bit once the second half started but that was almost expected since they were so good. And they are stronger after adding some bullpen help at the deadline giving me confidence to back the visitors on the moneyline.
Our Prediction: New York Yankees / OVER
