MLB Baseball
2026-07-30 - Chicago Cubs at St Louis Cardinals
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
United States : Major League Baseball
Thursday 30th July 2026 - Scheduled 2:10pm EST
7:10pm (British Time)
Preview
This four game set between National League Central Divisional rivals is concluded on Thursday and there is beginning to be some separation between the contenders and the pretenders ahead of the trade deadline. After a decent start to the season, the St Louis Cardinals (54-54) have dropped back to 0.500, which means being 2.5 games out of the Wild Card race, but with a number of teams ahead of them.
Recent statements by upper management have suggested the St Louis Cardinals will be a 'selling' team at the trade deadline with the team overachieving so far this season. That has not been quite enough to have a change in policy and try and push for the Playoffs, but instead the Cardinals are going to be continuing the rebuild into 2027 and that means trading away players will be the plan.
It is far from the case for the Chicago Cubs (61-47) who have won two of three in this set, but who remain 6 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the race for the Division. Despite that, the Cubs are looking more than capable of finishing with the best record outside of the Divisional Winners and they are going to be a team that looks to strengthen the roster.
Work will continue behind the scenes, but there is no let up in the regular season schedule as the teams conclude this series before moving into the next one against opponents from the American League East.
The Cubs will give the ball to Javier Assad who has a 6-1 record and 3.86 in seventeen appearances this season with eight of those being in starts. Javier Assad is still trying to find a solid place in the rotation either as a starter or as one of the top relievers out of the bullpen and the Chicago Cubs have to be happy with his recent performances in both positions.
He is unbeaten in his last six starts for the Chicago Cubs and Javier Assad earned the decision win from three starts in succession in June. In two starts in July, Javier Assad has covered over 9 Innings and allowed just two runs, while the last two appearances have been out of the bullpen to finish games off and Assad has not given up an earned run across 4 Innings in that spot too.
Earlier this month, Javier Assad was one out away from completing 5 Innings in a start against the St Louis Cardinals and he held them scoreless in his time on the mound. He did the same into the Sixth Inning in a start against the Cardinals last season, but both of those have been at Wrigley Field.
The St Louis Cardinals will go with Andre Pallante in this game and the pitcher has an 11-6 record and 3.77 ERA in twenty starts for the team in 2026. Trade rumours suggest the Cardinals are floating a number of pitchers on the market, but Pallante has not been included in too many of those rumours with his contract tied down with the team fro another couple of years.
Despite that, Andre Pallante has to ignore the noise that could be around him and the team as he tries to find some consistency on the mound. In four starts this month, half have ended with Andre Pallante not giving up a single run, but he has allowed nine runs in the middle two starts in July.
Andre Pallante did open the month by throwing almost 6 Innings in keeping the Chicago Cubs off the scoreboard and he picked up the decision win. That came in a start on the road, but Pallante allowed four runs in 3 Innings thrown against the Cubs in a home game at the end of May.
This is going to be the tenth meeting between these Divisional rivals in 2026 and the Cardinals win on Wednesday means they lead the season series 5-4.
Prediction
The uncertainty around the St Louis Cardinals in terms of the trade deadline has made things a little more difficult for a team that have overachieved all season.
In recent weeks they have looked to have hit a bit of a wall though and that means others are circling around players that could make big differences for those contending to win the World Series.
Andre Pallante is not expected to be one of those, but he has also been struggling for consistency and the Chicago Cubs may feel Javier Assad can lay a solid enough foundation for an 'upset' win to secure a win from this four game series played this week.
The Pick :
St Louis Cardinals 3-5 Chicago Cubs
