St. Louis Cardinals vs Houston Astros Prediction: This match could go either way

Thursday's Major League Baseball action at Busch Stadium features a matchup between the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals. Let's take a look at the matchup ahead of us and make our pick and forecast.

The St. Louis Cardinals have scored at least four runs in seven of their previous ten games, including a total of 12 runs in their most recent three games. When scoring four or more runs in a game, the Cardinals have won the last six games in a row. Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan have combined for 145 hits and 74 RBI for the Rockies, while Paul Goldschmidt leads the Cardinals with 84 hits and leads the team in RBI with 40. The next pitcher is Miles Mikolas, who has a record of 4-5 with a 4.23 earned run average and 66 strikeouts so far this season. In his career against the Astros, Mikolas has a record of 0-1 with a 10.80 earned run average and nine strikeouts. The St. Louis Cardinals have a record of 6-2 in their last eight games overall and 2-6 in their last eight games played at home. In their last four games, the St. Louis Cardinals have a record of 3-0-1.

The Houston Astros have scored at least four runs in five of their previous eight games, including a total of 15 runs in their most recent three games. When scoring four or more runs in a game, the Astros have won six of their last eight contests. The Astros are led in hits and runs batted in by Kyler Tucker, who has 76 and 43, respectively. Alex Bregman and Jeremy Pena have combined for 146 hits and 78 RBI. The next batter is Cristian Javier, who is currently 7-1 on the season with a 3.25 earned run average and 77 strikeouts. However, this will be Javier's first game against the Cardinals in his professional career. The Houston Astros have a record of 3-8 in their last 11 games overall and a record of 2-8 in their last 10 games played away from home. The total has gone over in six of the last eight games for the Houston Astros.

The Houston Astros have had some problems recently, but they are still clearly the superior team in this matchup, and we are getting a good deal because Cristian Javier is going to be the one to pitch for them. Although Miles Mikolas is a decorated pitcher in his own way, he has allowed more hits than Javier, who has a 3.25 earned run average and a 1.12 walk and hit rate per nine innings. This winning odds for Astros seem really reasonable.