After playing one of their worst series of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals begin a grueling 22-game stretch against teams with winning records.
That grind begins Friday when they host the Los Angeles Dodgers to open a three-game series at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals will seek to rebound after suffering 6-1, 4-1 and 9-2 losses to the Reds at Cincinnati this week. St. Louis has lost 14 of its past 22 games.
“I’m not worried about who’s in the other dugout, but it’s a matter of trusting in one another and playing the brand of baseball we can play,” Cardinals outfielder Alec Burleson said, according to MLB.com. “We haven’t gotten away from that, but some things haven’t gone our way, and as an offense, we’re scuffling. We’ve proven that we’re capable of coming out of something like this.”
St. Louis fell nine games behind the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers. They fell four games off the pace in the NL wild-card race.
“This wild-card race and the division race are going to be tight, and we still have a lot of games with Milwaukee, and I feel like that can go in our favor,” pitcher Kyle Gibson said. “We’re going to be playing meaningful games to the end of September, and I’ve got no doubt that this team can get through this stretch and start playing quality baseball again.”
Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas (8-9, 5.30 ERA) will try to rebound after allowing a combined nine runs on 16 hits in just eight innings in his past two starts.
The Dodgers beat him 7-1 on March 28 while scoring five runs on seven hits, including homers by Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts. Mikolas is 1-3 with a 5.06 ERA in eight career appearances against them, including five starts.
Los Angeles will try to get back on track after losing back-to-back games in Milwaukee to snap a five-game winning streak.
“You want to win every game, every series,” Dodgers pitcher Jack Flaherty said. “Any time you don’t, you’re not going to feel good walking away from it.”
The Dodgers have seen their NL West lead shrink to two games with the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres closing ground thanks to extended hot streaks.
Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts will give starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow an extra day of rest by moving his start to Saturday.
Rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski (0-1, 4.05 ERA) could start in his place. Wrobleski made four starts filling a rotation slot in July during his earlier call-up from the minors.
In his last two big league starts, Wrobleski allowed just two runs on seven hits in 10 innings. He is 5-4 with a 3.57 ERA in 17 starts for Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Betts will return to the lineup after not starting Thursday. Roberts wants to pace him in his first week back from the injured list after recovering from a broken hand.
“It’s been a while since he’s been playing every day,” Roberts said. “After this (day off) just let him play it out to the off days. After we get through this stretch, he should be good to go.”
–Field Level Media