St. Louis Cardinals vs. Boston Red Sox Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 6/19/2022

Time: 1:35 p.m. ET

Venue: Fenway Park, Boston, MA

Where to watch: Bally Sports Midwest, NESN

DraftKings: Red Sox -120, Cardinals +100

BetMGM: NL

Caesars: NL

Cardinals: 38-29

Red Sox: 35-31

Nolan Arenado spent the first month or so of the season playing the role of the St. Louis Cardinals' MVP, but his bat has since way cooled off and Paul Goldschmidt intervened to the point where he's destroying a baseball every other day.

But with one swing of the bat, Arenado reminded everyone that he's still one of the more dangerous hitters in the game. His two-run homer set the table for the Cardinals' 11-2 win over the Boston Red Sox to split the first two games of this three-game set.

The finale will be Sunday and this was a good reminder that the Cardinals are still a dangerous team despite some recent slip-ups. The combination of youth and experience has been tremendous for the first-place Cardinals, who hit three homers in Boston on Saturday. Nolan Gorman and Tyler O'Neill also went yard.

"This is the depth that we talked about and a lot of guys are putting it together at the right time," St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. "Outside of giving guys a day off, I think that's our best lineup."

The Cardinals handed the Red Sox a rare loss, their fourth in the last 16 games and it was their first win in Fenway over the last five games. They even got a strong effort from Dakota Hudson, a five-inning effort in which the only two runs of the game came off the arm of Hudson. Though he did walk five batters, it was still a solid day for Hudson.

"I just knew I was trying to hang on and keep my head above water, trying to give our team a chance to win, even though it wasn't pretty," Hudson said.

It was a 4-2 game heading into the sixth inning, which is when the Cardinals decided to go nuclear on the Red Sox. O'Neill's homer got things going, and then Tommy Edman added two more; Goldschmidt brought in two more shortly after, and Arenado drove in his third RBI to cap it off.

Arenado finished 2 for 4, Goldschmidt went 2 for 5, and O'Neill broke out of his slump and delivered with three hits in four at bats.

"It was obviously a great run for us," Gorman said of the inning. "When you get the opportunity to have two at-bats in one inning, that means your team's doing really well."

As for Boston, not the best day. The Red Sox had just five hits and drove in two runs. Two of the hits came off the bat of Xander Bogaerts. Kutter Crawford lasted only four innings and allowed four runs on six hits.

"We get two outs, two quick outs, then the base hit and then the 3-2 cutter middle-middle, and he didn't miss it," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Arenado's homer.

I'm not really sure about this pitching matchup with the youngster Andre Pallante going against Nick Pivetta. The latter has had a decent year going 6-5 and keeping the ERA under 4.00. That alone is something to behold. But I think the veteran will keep things low on the danger side and get a victory here. Red Sox win 6-4

Cardinals are 2-7 against AL East opponents this season.

Cardinals are 6-13 as a road underdog this season.

Red Sox are 29-16 in inter-league games the past three seasons.

Cardinals:
Tommy Edman (S) SS
Brendan Donovan (L) 2B
Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
Nolan Arenado (R) 3B
Nolan Gorman (L) DH
Tyler O'Neill (R) LF
Dylan Carlson (S) RF
Harrison Bader (R) CF
Andrew Knizner (R) C
SP - Andre Pallante

Red Sox:
Jarren Duran (L) CF
Rafael Devers (L) 3B
J.D. Martinez (R) DH
Xander Bogaerts (R) SS
Alex Verdugo (L) LF
Trevor Story (R) 2B
Franchy Cordero (L) 1B
Christian Vazquez (R) C
Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) RF
SP - Nick Pivetta