Yankees vs. Cardinals prediction and odds for Saturday, July 1

Luis Severino will get the start in the first game of the Yankees doubleheader vs the Cardinals.

Severino enters Saturday's start with a bloated 5.25 ERA, made even worse by his 7.85 road ERA. The Yankees' offense hit at a league-worst rate in the month of June. New York will look to stay in the mix for an AL Wild Card spot with Aaron Judge on the shelf against the struggling St. Louis Cardinals but will need the offense to show up. Gerrit Cole was supposed to start Saturday, but rain pushed him back to Sunday afternoon's affair.

Can we expect a breakout performance against Jack Flaherty and the Cardinals, who are last in the NL Central and have been plagued by poor pitching all season?

First, the odds:

Yankees vs. Cardinals odds, run line and total

Yankees vs. Cardinals prediction and pick

Severino is 0-2 on the road for the Yankees this season which doesn't bode well for New York in this twin-bill opener. In his last start, Severino went six innings without giving up a run, striking out four, and surrendering five hits. The Yanks would love to see him carry that momentum into St. Louis.

He faces a Cardinals lineup that is struggling to cash in at the plate, hitting just .244 as a unit last month, 18th in the big leagues. The Cards may struggle with Severino's velocity, as his four-seamer has been clocked around 97 mph, but the Yankees offense is off the worst hitting month in the big leagues, so this is shaping up for a pitcher's duel.

Flaherty is still walking too many hitters, nearly five per nine innings, but without Judge in the lineup, the Yankees lack the pop to challenge the Cardinals starter nor the team's bottom 10 bullpen in terms of ERA.

Severino may have things turned around, but I'm counting on Flaherty to outperform expectations and keep this low scoring.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.