Miami Marlins at St. Louis Cardinals 6/15/21 - MLB Picks & Predictions

The Miami Marlins will meet up with the St. Louis Cardinals in game two of a three-game set at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals dropped below .500 after being swept by the divisional rival Cubs, and fell into fourth place at 6 games back after dropping nine of their last ten games. The Marlins have continued to struggle this season, but trail the Mets in the NL East by 7-games at 29-36 on the year.

Miami has been a less than impressive team at the plate this season hitting .236 as a team, ranking 16th in the MLB, but scoring just 3.95 runs per game which rank 24th in the MLB in scoring offense. First baseman Jesus Aguilar has led the lineup and continued to produce this season hitting .271 with 12 home runs and 49 RBIs, all leading the team and ranking tied for second in the MLB in RBIs. Corey Dickerson has been a nice contact hitter in the lineup, hitting .260 but with just 2 home runs and 14 RBIs.  

The left-handed Trevor Rogers will get the start for the Marlins and hope to continue his rather impressive start to the 2021 season where he’s 7-3 with a 2.02 ERA. Rogers is sixth in the MLB in ERA among qualifying pitchers and is coming off a solid 7 inning outing where he allowed two runs on four hits while striking out eight in a blowout win at home over the Rockies.

The Cardinals have had a lot of struggles, especially in their last ten games, but the offense has put up solid numbers for the majority of this season. St. Louis is 20th in team batting average hitting .232 as a unit and 19th in the MLB in scoring offense averaging 4.22 runs per game. The addition of Nolan Arenado has been a fruitful one thus far, he leads the Cardinals hitting .281 and has driven in a team-high 41 runs with 12 home runs. 

The Cardinals have not announced a starter for this contest yet, as a whole the pitching staff has been very solid and outside of injuries they’ve kept them alive this season. With the recent struggles, going to the bullpen early is something they’ll no doubt be looking to avoid.