The St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals meet in MLB action from Kauffman Stadium on Friday night.
The St. Louis Cardinals will be looking to build on their 7-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates from Thursday. Paul DeJong and Lars Nootbaar each had a two-run home run while Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado each had a double and an RBI as well. Andrew Knizner added an RBI as well to finish off the scoring for the Cardinals in the win while Tommy Edman and Jose Rondon each had a double as well. Harrison Bader and Dylan Carlson each had a base hit to cap off St. Louis’ offense as a team in the victory. Wade LeBlanc allowed three runs on three hits in two innings in the start, but it was T.J. McFarland that got the win in relief to improve to 2-0 while Alex Reyes closed the door in the 9th for his 27th save. Jack Flaherty will start here and is 8-1 with a 2.90 ERA and 67 strikeouts this season.
The Kansas City Royals will try to rebound from a 5-2 loss at the hands of the New York Yankees in their last game. Nicky Lopez and Salvador Perez each had an RBI to make up the Royals’ scoring as a team in the losing effort. Whit Merrifield went 3 for 4 at the dish and Hunter Dozier had a pair of hits while Cam Gallagher added a double and Ryan O’Hearn chipped in a base knock as well to finish off KC’s offense as a team in the defeat. Brady Singer ended up with the loss after allowing all five runs on ten hits with three walks over just 3.2 innings of work. Mike Minor will get the start here and is 8-10 with a 5.39 ERA and 128 strikeouts this season.
St. Louis is 3-7 in their last 10 Friday games and 4-1 in their last 5 series-opening games while the under is 8-2 in their last 10 road games against a team with a losing record. Kansas City is 7-3 in their last 10 home games and 9-4 in their last 13 games against the NL Central while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 series-opening games.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Cardinals handle things with Flaherty in his first start back and the Royals have also had a day off while the Cards are coming in on no rest from Pittsburgh on Friday. However, the Cardinals are simply the team with anything at stake here as they can ill afford to fall any further back in the playoff races if they’re going to have any hope of some September magic. I think the Cards are amped to get their ace back and support him with enough to get a win here.