Cubs @ Cardinals Predictions: Hendricks with over 4.5 K's

The Cubs and Cardinals have quite the rivalry and they start a three-game set this weekend. Zach Rainey takes a look at Friday's match-up...

Rivalry baseball games are the best and you can’t tell me otherwise.

Only some matchups qualify as true rivalry games that would also appeal on a national scale and we have one this weekend when the Chicago Cubs head to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals.

The Cubs come in at 22-21 after taking three out of four against the Nationals this week to get back over .500.

They will send Kyle Hendricks to the mound with St. Louis countering with Carlos Martinez. Hendricks has had good numbers against St. Louis in his career. He’s 9-3 with a 2.88 ERA against the Cardinals.

Martinez hasn’t had the same luck, as he allows a .257 batting average against Chicago with an ERA of 4.69.

Nolan Arenado has been everything the Cardinals organization could’ve wanted when making the blockbuster trade, but hasn’t found help from other big names on the roster.

Paul Goldschmidt is hitting .253 at the moment. I expect to see his average climb as we get into the summer months, but the fact he only has six home runs and 14 extra base hits isn’t quite what they expected, especially when you see that he has exactly as many home runs and extra base hits as the 38-year old Yadier Molina.

It also hasn’t helped that Paul DeJong, now on the 10-day IL, is hitting only .177 with seven home runs.

On the other side, Chicago is looking for some boosts in the lineup too.

After finding himself in trade rumors for much of the offseason, Kris Bryant seems to be back to his old self, as he currently is tied for the team lead with 10 home runs and is hitting .308.

The Cubs home that Jason Heyward will pick things up when he gets back from the IL, as he was hitting just .183 before getting injured.

Javier Baez is hitting a respectable .255 with 10 home runs and a team-high 28 RBIs, but his strikeout to walk split is hilarious. I would use atrocious, but I don’t think that captures what’s going on.

He’s fourth in Major League Baseball with 55 strikeouts to just four walks. Four.

I like the home-team Cardinals on the runline at +1.5 tonight. The Cubs are currently -111 favorites. You typically don’t see lines that low in Major League Baseball, which means Vegas views this game as a coin flip.

For a prop, let’s take Kyle Hendricks over 4.5 strikeouts at +105.