The St. Louis Cardinals (33-27) and the Kansas City Royals (32-29) meet on Thursday at 7:45 p.m. ET. The Cardinals are moneyline favorites (-129) against the underdog Royals (+109). St. Louis has Matthew Liberatore starting, while Kansas City will send out Cole Ragans.

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Cardinals vs. Royals betting lines

• Favorite: Cardinals (-129)
• Underdog: Royals (+109)
• Over/under: 8.5

Cardinals betting info, hitting leaders, & pitching

Cardinals betting info

• The Cardinals are 13-11 in games they were favored on the moneyline (winning 54.2% of those games).
• In games it has played as moneyline favorites with odds of -129 or shorter, St. Louis has gone 7-3 (70%).
• The implied moneyline probablility for this matchup gives the Cardinals a 56.3% chance to win.
• In the 60 games in which oddsmakers have set an over/under for St. Louis, it has combined with opponents to go over the total 32 times (32-26-2).
• The Cardinals have a 34-26-0 record ATS this season.

Cardinals hitting info

• Brendan Donovan leads the Cardinals with a .321 batting average.
• Donovan ranks 174th in homers and 116th in RBI among all hitters in MLB play.
• Lars Nootbaar’s eight home runs lead his team.
• Nootbaar ranks 75th in home runs and 80th in RBI among batters in MLB action.
• Nootbaar has hit safely in two games in a row. During his last five outings he is batting .250 with two doubles, two walks and an RBI.
• Nolan Arenado is batting .227 with 10 doubles, a triple, six home runs and 20 walks.
• Masyn Winn has 10 doubles, six home runs and 19 walks while batting .281.
• Winn has safely hit in three games in a row. In his last five games he is hitting .429 with four doubles, a walk and an RBI.

Cardinals pitching rankings

• The pitching staff for the Cardinals has a collective 7.3 K/9, the second-worst in MLB.
• St. Louis’ 3.89 team ERA ranks 15th across all MLB pitching staffs.
• The Cardinals average baseball’s 16th-ranked WHIP (1.249).
• Cardinals pitchers combine to allow 47 home runs (0.8 per game), the third-fewest in MLB.
• St. Louis its 10-7 loss the last time out, the team struck out five Royals batters while allowing 13 hits.

Royals betting info, hitting leaders, & pitching

Royals betting info

• This season, the Royals have won 19 out of the 37 games, or 51.4%, in which they’ve been the underdog.
• Kansas City has a record of 10-11 in games where bookmakers have it as underdogs of at least +109 on the moneyline.
• The Royals have a 47.8% chance to win this game based on the implied probability of the moneyline.
• Kansas City’s games have gone over the total in 22 of its 61 chances.
• The Royals are 33-28-0 ATS in their 61 games with a spread this season.

Royals hitting info

• Bobby Witt Jr. leads Kansas City in runs batted in with 35 while batting .287.
• Among all batters in the big leagues, Witt ranks 92nd in homers and 33rd in RBI.
• Maikel Garcia’s batting average of .313 leads all Kansas City hitters this season.
• Garcia ranks 148th among hitters in the big leagues in homers, and 88th in RBI.
• Vinnie Pasquantino’s eight home runs lead all Kansas City hitters, and he’s slugging .399.
• Pasquantino has safely hit in four straight games. In his last five games he is batting .294 with a double, four walks and three RBIs.
• Jonathan India is batting .244 with an OBP of .333 and a slugging percentage of .307 this season.

Royals pitching rankings

• The Royals have an 8.2 K/9 this season as a pitching staff, which ranks 16th in the majors.
• Kansas City pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.20 ERA this year, fourth-best in baseball.
• The Royals have a combined WHIP of just 1.192 as a pitching staff, which is the seventh-best in baseball this season.
• The Royals have given up the seventh-fewest long balls so far this season with only 58 home runs allowed.
• Last time out, Kansas City defeated the Cardinals, 10-7, with eight strikeouts and 12 hits allowed.