Chicago Cubs vs St. Louis Cardinals Prediction & Picks - MLB

Prediction published on 8/14/26, 10:36 AM  by Edgar Jibran in MLB Picks

The first game of the series between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals will be played this Friday at 12:20 pm CST. For this game, both franchises are expected to deliver their best possible performances, as they still don’t have any certainty about their playoff qualification in the NL Central Division standings.

Despite this, it cannot be ignored that the St. Louis Cardinals will face a tougher situation for the rest of the season, as they are currently three games behind the Wild Card spots. Considering this, Matthew Liberatore is expected to show consistency in his strikeout performance, as he recorded 110 in just 22 games started this season. Nonetheless, it cannot be ignored that he allowed 3 or more earned runs in three of his last three games.

As for the Chicago Cubs, this team definitely has a clear advantage over the St. Louis Cardinals, so they could even lose this series and remain in the second spot of the NL Central Division. With these facts in mind, considering Clay Holmes as the opening pitcher for this game could be seen as a nice chance for him to prove his pitching capabilities against one of the strongest teams in terms of batting average, like the Cardinals.