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Cardinals-Cubs is one of the best and most popular rivalries in Major League Baseball, so whenever they play it’s often on national television. That’s the case for Game 2 of the series on Saturday. The Cubs will be short favorites on the MLB odds.

How to Bet Cardinals at Cubs MLB Odds & TV Info

When: Saturday, 7:15 PM ET
Where: Wrigley Field
Probable pitchers (away/home): Kwang Hyun Kim/Zach Davies
TV: Fox
Stream/gameday audio: Fox Sports Go; https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/
Opening MLB Lines: TBA (Cubs will be favored)

Why Bet on St. Louis?

The Cards are a bit short in the rotation. Ace Jack Flaherty has been out weeks and isn’t close to returning. Dakota Hudson is likely out for the season. And the latest issue was Carlos Martinez being placed on the injured list this week with a right thumb ligament sprain. The 29-year-old suffered the injury on July 5 during an at-bat. The right-hander is carrying a 6.23 ERA and 1.37 WHIP over 82 1/3 innings this season.

Even before Martinez’s injury, the Cardinals were expected to add one, possibly two, starting pitchers before the trade deadline. All these injuries to starters could lead to overworking a bullpen that has seen an abundance of action early on this season.

Now, only one starting pitcher from the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster (Adam Wainwright) remains in the rotation, and the team is left with just four healthy starters as the All-Star break approaches.

Your starting pitching is typically one of the tallest buildings in your community. It’s a big pillar to what we do and it’s something that we have hung our hat on for years in this organization,” Manager Mike Shildt said. “We got to figure out creative solutions.”

To take Martinez’s roster spot, the team called up outfielder Lars Nootbaar from Triple-A Memphis. Nootbaar is just 4-for-25 (.160) at the major league level this season but was slashing .310/.426/.524 over 84 at-bats with Triple-A Memphis.

It’s lefty Kwang Hun Kim (3-5) on the mound here. Kim blanked the Giants for seven innings Monday in the Cardinals’ 5-3 win. Kim looked to tweak his back mid-game — he’s dealt with a nagging back issue off and on this season — but remained in and wound up going a season high with seven innings. He struck out just two on the day but also allowed only three singles and two walks. Kim has put up a 2.39 ERA over his last five starts to lower his season mark to 3.39. He has a 1.28 WHIP and 52:24 K:BB over 66.1 innings this season.

It will be Kim’s first look at the Cubs this season and only second career look at them. He allowed one run over 3.2 innings last year in a no-decision.

Why Bet on Chicago?

Monitor the status of Cubs star Kris Bryant, who is banged up again with hamstring tightness. It’s quite possible that Bryant is traded during next week’s All-Star break. He’s a free agent and not expected to re-sign this offseason so better for the Cubs to get something for him.

Bryant has seen time at third base (26 games, 23 starts) this season, but has also been spotted in left field (22 games, 14 starts), right field (23 games, 20 starts), center field (14 games, 10 starts) and first base (12 games, 10 starts). Bryant was picked for the NL All-Star team. He started the year on fire at the plate but has really cooled off of late – as has the entire team.

The Cubs signed catcher Robinson Chirinos to a one-year deal earlier this week and he is already the seventh catcher utilized by Chicago this season – the team has now used at least seven catchers in a season nine times, previously done in 2017. The club record for catchers used in a season is eight, done in 1885, 1916 and 1960.

It’s Zach Davies (5-5, 4.28) on the mound, and he also could be traded. He’s on a one-year deal for $8.6 million and at 28 years old he could bring back a decent return and has made a league-high 18 starts this year.

Davies gave up two runs over five innings against the Phillies on Monday, but didn’t factor into the decision. After Davies left, the Phillies would score 11 runs off the Chicago bullpen. Davies allowed just four hits, but two of those were solo homers by Didi Gregorius and Andrew Knapp. Since allowing eight runs against the Marlins, Davies has allowed just four runs in his last 14 innings and lowered his ERA to 4.28 in the process.

Davies last faced the Cardinals on June 13 at Wrigley Field and threw 6 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. He scattered just two hits and two walks while striking out six. Davies generated eight whiffs in the game (five on his changeup, three on his sinker) and posted a CSW of 27 percent.