The Toronto Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals are two of the teams expected to be postseason contenders who got off to really rough starts to the season. For the Blue Jays, the struggles have continued with injuries piling up alongside the losses. The Cardinals, on the other hand, enter the series with a bit more optimism after winning six of their last seven games to get back to within a game of .500.
This series will be contested from Tuesday, April 25, 2017 through Thursday, April 27, 2017 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
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Pitching Matchups
The series will kick off on Tuesday with Michael Wacha on the mound for the Cardinals and Marco Estrada taking the hill for the Blue Jays.
Estrada spent five years in Milwaukee before going to the Jays and thus has seen the Cards quite a few times. Of course, Estrada found himself a couple years ago for the Jays after struggling in his time with the Brewers. Those struggles show in his career line against St. Louis as he’s 0-5 with a 5.10 ERA and 1.400 WHIP spread.
In four starts here in 2017, Estrada has pitched very well in three of them. He’s left his last two starts without giving up a run, combining for 13 innings and just seven hits allowed against the Orioles and Red Sox, two power hitting teams.
Wacha is also off to a good start as he looks healthy again and is throwing the ball like he did during his 2015 All-Star campaign. He’s 2-1 with a 2.41 ERA in his three starts. He’s thrown a quality start in all three games and is coming off a one run, 6.2 innings outing against Pittsburgh his last time out.
Moving onto Wednesday’s game, the Blue Jays haven’t announced their starter as they’re still piecing things together with J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez on the disabled list. The Cardinals will start Carlos Martinez while Toronto could go with Mat Latos who got the start on Friday night. As for the series finale, Casey Lawrence is lined up to get the start after making his first Major League start on Saturday against veteran Cardinal Adam Wainwright.
Latos wasn’t exactly dominant in his Blue Jays’ debut, giving up four runs in five innings of work against the Angels, but he kept his team in the ball game and the Jays got the win. He’ll get another chance this week against St. Louis and will need to be better as he matches up with Martinez who hasn’t been so great this year, but is the Cardinals’ ace. He’s averaged 15 wins each of the last two years with an ERA barely over three both years. This season, he’s 0-3 with a 4.76 ERA and 1.500 WHIP. He’s already allowed three home runs and 11 walks in 22.2 innings, but his stuff is still there as evidence by his 31 strikeouts. He just needs to command it better.
As for the Lawrence vs. Wainwright matchup, Lawrence is a 29-year old rookie that’s been the Jays’ system since 2010. He started getting noticed some last year when he finished up strong and got the nod early this season. He’s made three big league appearances, but just the one start.
He pitched pretty well in that start—until he didn’t. He lasted 6.1 innings with the only real issue in that start against the Angels being a grand slam. He ultimately gave up five runs—four earned—on eight hits as the team lost 5-4. His other two outings came against the Rays, both in losses, giving up three combined runs in two total innings.
All in all, that should mean plenty of support for Wainwright who has been the Cardinals’ worst starting pitcher through the first month. He’s got a 6.27 ERA in four starts and a WHIP just under two in his 18.2 innings. The 35-year old looks old, but after a 0-3 start finally got a win in his last start where he managed to go five innings, giving up just a pair of runs to a hot Milwaukee offense.
Injury Report
The Blue Jays haven’t played well at all. Russell Martin is still hitting just .149. Devon Travis and Jose Bautista have been even worse. Ezequiel Carrera and Darwin Barney have the highest averages on the team—excluding Josh Donaldson who is on the disabled list.
Joining Donaldson on the sidelines is Troy Tulowitzki who’s .263 average and 10 RBIs actually make him one of the better hitters on the team to this point despite a disappointing .681 OPS.
With those injuries, this team barely looks like the same one that’s been such an offensive force in the AL over the last handful of seasons. Justin Smoak and Kevin Pillar are leading the way offensively. The Jays have a collective .223 average and .639 OPS. They’re desperately missing Tulo and Donaldson and that doesn’t even get into the pitching injuries of Sanchez and Happ. Toronto is getting hit with injuries from all directions as they desperately try and turn their flailing season around.
Fortunately for St. Louis, their early struggles weren’t made worse with tons of injuries. Jhonny Peralta is out, but with Jedd Gyorko and Kolten Wong, he’s more or less an extra piece at this stage in his career anyway.
Bullpen Comparison
The Cardinals had some slow starters on offense, but their biggest issue leading to their bad start was the bullpen. St. Louis still ranks third from last in bullpen ERA in all of baseball at 5.63, but that’s already worlds better than where they started.
The Cards spent some money on the pen this offseason bringing in Brett Cecil to take the place of Zach Duke. The contract was a reach at the time and has looked very bad so far. Cecil has allowed five runs in 7.2 innings. Of course, he’s not the only one struggling. Kevin Siegrist and Jonathan Broxton have inflated ERAs. Fortunately for St. Louis, Matthew Bowman has provided some relief while Trevor Rosenthal has been okay.
Seung-hwan Oh was part of the early struggles, too, allowing at least a run in four of his first five appearances, including three in a blown save on Opening Day. He’s since gone four straight games without giving up a run and has recorded five saves over his last five appearances.
For the Toronto pen, the numbers are a bit better. After missing Roberto Osuna for the first part of the season, he’s back and at least gives some stability in the back end. Joe Biagini has been lights out again, too. Jason Grilli is really the only one with massive early struggles.
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