St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies prediction, pick, prop, odds for 4/12: Can Cards' Flaherty find control?

Yardbarker Quick Pick

The weather in Colorado is looking primed for runs, and it’s best we join the ride. Forecasts suggest a 27% increase is coming for homers and a 37% boost to runs is expected. Yesterday’s game saw 15 runs scored, so while it’s high, the over is the play here. Grab over 13 runs. — Griffin Carroll, Yardbarker

These Rockies-Cards odds may already have changed in your favor! Get LIVE updates on OddsChecker!

Wednesday, 3:10 p.m. ET
St. Louis Cardinals: +3.5 (-103) runline, -164 moneyline, over 13 (-110)
@ Colorado Rockies: -3.5 (-105) runline, +150 moneyline, under 13 (+105)

Looking for the best sportsbook offers? Check out our FREE bets page

Colorado will send Jose Urena (0-2, 14.40 ERA) to the mound against St. Louis' Jack Flaherty (1-1, 1.80) in a matchup of right-handers.

The Rockies are wrapping up a seven-game homestand, their first of the season after opening at San Diego and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Colorado brings a 3-3 home mark into the Wednesday game, when Urena will try to bounce back from two poor starts to begin the season. He has allowed a combined 10 runs (eight earned) in five innings during starts against the Padres and the Washington Nationals.

He is 2-1 with a 7.66 ERA in five appearances (four starts) in his career against the Cardinals.

Yardbarker Quick Prop: Jose Urena under 3.5 Ks 

Jose Urena, one of Colorado's starters, has not brought much to the strikeout department this year. In two starts, he has just 1 K on the year, putting him last in the league in strikeouts/inning, and in the 23rd percentile of swinging strike rate. It's hard to imagine today is the day he figures things out. St. Louis struck out at the lowest rate against RHP last season and have struck out the fifth-fewest amount per game this season. Urena saw St. Louis once last year and struck out just two. Take the under. — Griffin Carroll, Yardbarker

Urena will have a few youngsters in the lineup around him as Colorado continues to look toward the future. One of the bright young stars is 21-year-old Ezequiel Tovar, who has showed a lot of promise but has started slowly. He is hitting .225 through the season's first two weeks.

"Take the positive, but take the negatives and learn from them," Tovar said through an interpreter. "Everybody wants to start out hot, start off right. But it's a game of adjustments. Just continue to work, knowing that the work is going to stand out."

St. Louis has its own young star in 20-year-old Jordan Walker, who has hit safely in 11 straight games to begin the season. The only player 20 or younger to have a longer hitting streak to begin the season is Eddie Murphy, who had a 12-game streak in 1912 for the Philadelphia Athletics.

Flaherty has a good record and ERA but has experienced some stumbles in his first two starts. He didn't allow a hit over five innings against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 1 but walked seven.

In Milwaukee six nights later, he allowed just two runs in five innings but walked six.

So far this year he has given up just four hits but has walked 13 in 10 innings.

"Getting frustrated is not going to do anything for anybody, and that's something that I've had to learn and figure out," Flaherty said. "Getting frustrated and showing emotion is not going do anything for me or the team, but it's going do something for the hitter."

He will need to limit the free passes in the Wednesday outing or it could be a long afternoon. The thin air in Colorado is notorious for punishing pitchers with control issues.

Flaherty will find out in his first-ever start at Coors Field. In four career starts against the Rockies, he is 2-1 with a 1.96 ERA.

He hasn't faced Colorado since tossing seven scoreless innings against the Rockies on May 7, 2021, in St. Louis.