ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball returns this week with the Boston Red Sox hosting the St. Louis Cardinals from historic Fenway Park. The Red Sox are 4-4 as of Sunday morning, while the Cardinals are 4-3. Sunday night’s game is Game 2 of a doubleheader between the two interleague opponents.
The Red Sox are -124 money-line favorites (risk $124 to win $100) to the Cardinals’ +105 (risk $100 to win $105). The total comes in at 9. You can view the latest model projections for Red Sox-Cardinals and all other MLB games only at SportsLine.
Angelo Magliocca, a regular contributor to The Early Edge and CBS Sports HQ, is a seasoned MLB handicapper up 123.5 units over the last three MLB seasons. He’s made a three-leg parlay for Sunday Night Baseball, which includes his selection for how many runs St. Louis will score. You can view all expert picks for Cardinals-Red Sox, as well as other MLB games, only at SportsLine.
This week’s Sunday Night Baseball Game between the Red Sox and Cardinals is the second half of a doubleheader, so make sure to look into what happens in the first game as you’re making your bets for the night cap. If any stars were to leave the game early or bullpens used heavily in the early game, we would likely see lineup changes or starting pitchers being asked for more innings than usual.
Picks:
Miles Mikolas is the starter for the Cardinals, and he struggled to avoid hard contact when facing left-handed batters last year, allowing hard-hit balls over 50% of the time, so that’s the matchup we’ll hone in on. Lefty Rafael Devers has been the focus of much scrutiny to start the season, but he’s now put together a three-game hit streak while getting on base four times in Friday’s game between these teams, which was the first of the year in front of the Fenway faithful. Devers also has recent success against Mikolas, smashing a home run last year in just two at-bats against the righty, with success prior in 2023 as well. I also advise you to play his hit + run + RBI prop Over 1.5 when it opens up after the first game concludes this afternoon, and a sprinkle of a bet on the home run, despite weather potentially suppressing runs.
For our same-game parlay, we’re including one hit for Devers, and one for Lars Nootbaar, the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter. Both are left-handed hitters facing a righty, with prospect Hunter Dobbins just announced as the Red Sox starter. I don’t have much confidence he can hold these Cardinals lefties down while making his big league debut, especially Nootbaar. In seven games so far, Nootbaar has racked up 12 hits, with one of those games being a zero-hit effort and the other six being of the multi-hit variety. Don’t be afraid to also bet Nootbaar 2+ hits at +210. Dobbins is a prospect that posted a solid ERA between AA and AAA levels last year but he allowed a near .300 average to left-handed batters.
With that being said, I’m also including the Cardinals’ team total Over 3.5 runs being they have the guaranteed ninth-inning at-bat and sat both Alex Burleson and Brendan Donovan — left handed regulars — to prepare for the night game. We just need two hits and a few runs from the Cardinals to get it done at +165 odds on Fanduel, which is one of the only books with props up for this game currently. Shop around as the day goes on!
