Kansas City Royals vs St. Louis Cardinals Game 1 Prediction – 6/5/2025

On Thursday, June 5, the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals will face off in the first game of a doubleheader after their matchup on Wednesday was postponed. With two games on the schedule for today, starting pitching longevity in Game 1 will be crucial for both this game and the next one on the schedule. Here, you will find our Kansas City Royals vs St. Louis Cardinals prediction for Game 1 of their twin-bill.

The Kansas City Royals enter today's action with a record of 32-29. They will have Noah Cameron on the mound to start this contest. Cameron is 2-1 on the season with a 1.05 ERA in four appearances. Important to note is that Cameron has lasted at least six innings in all of his starts this season, which would be important going into this doubleheader.

On the Cardinals side, Miles Mikolas will get the start in Game 1. Mikolas is 4-2 on the season and he has a 3.90 ERA. He has not lost a start since mid-April and will look to keep that streak alive, despite the fact that he struggled in his last start, giving up four earned runs to a bad Baltimore Orioles team. St. Louis is 33-27, but has dropped two games in a row coming into today's doubleheader action.

St. Louis is a slight favorite going into this game and they will look to set the tone for the day's action. To do that, they look to take advantage of the road struggles of the Royals, who are just 13-16 on the road for the year.

Quick Takes Kansas City Royals:

Maikel Garcia has taken a step back with his Barrel% lately; his 5.3% seasonal rate has dropped off to 0% in the past week.

• Barrel% measures how often a player hits the ball at the optimal exit velocity and launch angle and is a terrific measure of underlying power.

Salvador Perez pulls a high percentage of his flyballs (37% — 95th percentile) but may find it hard to clear baseball's 8th-deepest LF fences in today's matchup.

• This player's skill set does not match up particularly well with the park he's in today, which may lead to worse-than-usual performance.

Quick Takes St. Louis Cardinals:

Ivan Herrera has seen a substantial improvement in his exit velocity on flyballs this season; just compare his 101.2-mph average to last season's 91.5-mph EV.

• Most home runs are flyballs, and the harder those flyballs are hit, the more often they turn into home runs. This is a strong indicator of power.

The St. Louis Cardinals have been the 5th-luckiest offense in the league this year, according to the leading projection system (THE BAT X), and are likely to perform worse in future games

• When teams overperform their projected talent level, markets may overvalue them even while they are likely to perform worse in the near future.

Kansas City Royals vs St. Louis Cardinals Game 1 Prediction

Predicted Final Score: Kansas City Royals 3.88, St. Louis Cardinals 4.03

• Date: June 5, 2025
• Venue: Busch Stadium
• Starting Pitchers:
  • Noah Cameron - Royals
  • Miles Mikolas - Cardinals

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