The Cardinals have been one of the hottest team in baseball over the past few weeks and will aim to keep it rolling. Boston might have more talent than St. Louis but hasn’t put it all together on the season and is hovering near .500 at 19-18.
Both of these teams believe they are good enough to make the playoffs and this is an intriguing early-season interleague showdown.
This series will be contested from Tuesday, May 16 through Wednesday, May 17, 2017 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. Tuesday’s game will be shown on MLB Network and Wednesday’s finale will be televised by ESPN.
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Pitching Matchups
The Cardinals are scheduled to send Lance Lynn to the mound in the opener. He is 4-1 on the season with a 2.75 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Lynn has held batters to only a .215 average on the season, and while his peripheral numbers don’t suggest a dominant pitcher, Lynn has long been solid and the Red Sox will have to put together good at-bats to score on him.
The Red Sox will counter with Eduardo Rodriguez. He is 1-1 with a sparkling 2.80 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. He has 42 strikeouts in 35.1 innings pitched and will aim to continue his dominance against the Cardinals.
In the series finale, St. Louis will start right-hander Mike Leake. He is 4-2 with a 1.94 ERA on the year and a 0.99 WHIP. Leake has tossed a quality start in every game this season and hopes to keep that streak alive here.
Boston will also send a talented hurler to the mound in Rick Porcello. He is 2-5 with a 4.01 ERA on the season. Porcello has struck out 52 batters and walked only nine in 49.1 innings pitched, which is a sign that his ERA is going to go down as the season moves along. Even though Leake has the better numbers this year, Boston has the pitching advantage in this one.
Key Stat
18. That’s the number of wins the Cardinals have reeled off in their past 24 games, going from 3-9 on the season to 21-15. St. Louis knocked off the Cubs, 5-0, last time out to take the rubber game of their series and stay a game ahead of the Brewers in the N.L. Central.
The Cubs are the defending World Series champions and have too much talent not to improve, so the Cardinals will certainly be hard-pressed to stay atop the division. However, they are good enough to push Chicago, and the wild card will be in play as well if the Cubs do overtake them.
After a rough start, the Cardinals are playing as well as anyone of late and get these two games at home, which will give them a boost.
Power Shortage
The Red Sox have a talented and deep lineup with a lot of players who can get on base at a high clip. However, they have not been very good at hitting homers this season, and that needs to improve. David Ortiz had locked down the middle of the order for the past several years but retired after the 2016 season.
Mookie Betts has six home runs while Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez have five apiece. While Boston may not have a big bopper to lean on, everyone has underperformed a bit in the power department thus far and a market correction should be coming, which will help the offense take off.
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