MLB Baseball
2025-08-18 - St Louis Cardinals at Miami Marlins
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : MLB Baseball
Monday 18th August 2025 - Scheduled 6:40pm
11:40pm (British Time)
Preview
A glance at the current standings in the National League Wild Card race suggests the St Louis Cardinals (61-64) and Miami Marlins (59-65) are still in positions where a late surge of positive form could take them into the post-season.
However, the Cardinals are coming into this one having been swept by the New York Yankees and have now lost five in a row, while the Miami Marlins had lost seven of eight games before salvaging something out of the series with the Boston Red Sox. Suffice to say that time is running out for both of these National League teams as we move past the middle of the month and so this feels like an important series for both.
St Louis will travel to South Florida and they will givr the ball to Matthew Liberatore who has a 6-10 record and 4.08 ERA in twenty-two starts made this season. The ERA is on course to be the best of the four years spent in the Major League and that after making double the amount of starts in 2025 compared with previous years when used predominantly as a reliever.
There are some concerns that the additional workload that Matthew Liberatore is being asked to do is taking a toll on him.
Over his last five starts, Liberatore has not completed 5 Innings in any of them and he has a 0-4 record and 5.95 ERA. Analytics iwthin the organisation will have made note that Matthew Liberatore has struggled once getting through the opening 2 or 3 Innings, but the pitcher himself does not want to be withdrawn from the rotation and used out of the bullpen again.
Previous appearances against the Miami Marlins have not been very productive for Matthew Liberatore, even in the limited time spent on the mound, while pitching on the road has proved to be more challenging.
The Marlins will counter with Eury Perez who has been much better at home than on the road and who will be hoping that this ballpark can inspire a bounce back performance.
Eury Perez does have a 5-3 record and 3.58 ERA in twelve starts made this season, but recent outings have seen the momentum slowed. He has allowed nine runs in his last two starts, which have covered a little over 10 Innings, although both were on the road.
In his last start in this ballpark, Perez held the New York Yankees scoreless in 6 Innings completed, and that means the pitcher has allowed just two runs in his last three starts for Miami at home.
Miami have won four of the last five games played between these National League rivals.
Prediction
Neither team is playing with much momentum, but the Miami Marlins may have a slight edge on the starting mound and can back up their win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday by opening this series with another.
The Pick :
Miami Marlins 5-3 St Louis Cardinals
