Cardinals vs. Blue Jays Tuesday MLB injury report, odds: St. Louis big underdog without All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado

The Toronto Blue Jays have one massive home-field advantage this MLB season that other teams don't: Opposing players who are unvaccinated for COVID are not able to enter Canada. The reverse is also true for Blue Jays players entering the United States for away games, which is why every player on Toronto's roster is vaccinated. The St. Louis Cardinals open play at Rogers Centre tonight and are without their two best players in All-Stars Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt because of these border regulations. Toronto is thus one of the biggest favorites on the Caesars Sportsbook board at -225. It's only the third time this year that St. Louis is at least +185 (1-1 in the previous two).

Goldschmidt is the -140 favorite at Caesars to win his first National League MVP Award and leads the Cardinals in batting average (.335), home runs (24), RBI (77), on-base percentage (.417), hits (118), and wins above replacement (5.3). Arenado is batting .296 with 18 homers and 59 RBI while playing his usual Gold Glove-level defense. His WAR is 5.1. The Cardinals are five games above .500 and would almost surely struggle to stay afloat without their two stars.

Backup catcher Austin Romine also is unvaccinated and not with the club. How much will not getting vaccinated cost the three players in lost salary? The Associated Press reported that Arenado will lose $384,416, Goldschmidt will lose $241,758 and Romine will lose $10,989.

This is the first time St. Louis has visited Toronto since 2014. The Jays were in St. Louis from May 23-24 and split two games. Goldschmidt had a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th in the first game.

It's rookie Andre Pallante (3-4, 3.34 ERA) on the mound tonight. He pitched in relief of Miles Mikolas on May 23 at Busch Stadium in the 7-3 Cardinals' win. Pallante entered with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and issued two walks before inducing an inning-ending groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Jose Berrios (7-4, 5.22 ERA) starts for Toronto. Over three career meetings with St. Louis, Berrios is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA and 0.86 WHIP while holding batters to a .191 average. Berrios has been way better at home this year (5-0, 3.33 ERA) than on the road (2-4, 7.15). 

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