The Cardinals have a 27-23 record and sit in second place in the Central, behind the Cubs. They are 6-4 in their last 10 games, but have dropped their last two against the Tigers. The Cardinals trail the Padres by 1 game in the wild card and we trail them by 1 game. The Cardinals started the season 14-17, but in the month of May they are 13-6. The Cardinals are 16-8 at home.
The Dbacks sit at 26-24. They are 13-11 on the road and an even 13-13 at home.
Game 1 – 5/23 5:15 PM – Zac Gallen (3-5, 5.14 ERA, 82 ERA+, 1.37 WHIP) vs. Miles Mikolas (3-2, 3.77 ERA, 110 ERA+, 1.21 WHIP)
It will be a tale of which Zac Gallen we get tonight. In his last time out against the Rockies he gave up 6 ERs and 4 home runs in 5 innings.
Mikolas looks to be hot recently. Last time out against the Royals he allowed just 2 hits in 6 innings. He has really only had one bad start this season, giving up 8 ER (9 runs) to the Red Sox in his second start of the season. This is actually a pitching rematch of a 5-0 Dbacks win on April 14, 2024. Mikolas gave up 5 runs in 4.2 innings. Gallen didn’t allow a run, striking out 7 on 4 hits in 6 innings.
Game 2 – 5/24, 11:10 AM – Merrill Kelly (5-2, 3.26 ERA, 129 ERA+, 1.00 WHIP) vs. Matthew Liberatore (3-3, 2.92 ERA, 142 ERA+, 1.43 WHIP)
Merrill Kelly is coming off a dominant performance against the Rockies. He struck out 11 and only gave up a hit in 7 innings. Kelly has only had one bad start, his second game of the season in Yankee Stadium. Kelly did not start against the Cardinals last season, but in 2023 he pitched against them twice. Both times going 6 innings and giving up just 1 run.
Liberatore is a LHP and was born in Peoria and he was drafted in the first round by the Rays. He was traded alongside minor leaguer Edgardo Rodriguez for Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena. Last time out, against the Royals he only allowed 1 run in 6 innings. There has only been one game this season where he has allowed more than 3 runs. That would be 5 against the Pirates in April. He is only in his 4th season and this will be the first time has has faced the Dbacks.
Game 3 – 5/25, 11:10 AM – Brandon Pfaadt (7-3, 3.81 ERA, 110 ERA+, 1.23 WHIP) vs. Sonny Gray (5-1, 4.02 ERA, 103 ERA+, 1.12 WHIP)
Two of Pfaadt’s last three starts were against the Dodgers. He got quality starts in both games. He faceed the Cardinals twice last year. In one game he went 5.1 and gave up 2 runs, in the other game he went 6 and gave up 6.
Sonny Gray is a veteran 3 time all star. He has pitched mostly in the AL in his career. He signed in St. Louis November 2023. In his last 3 games, he’s been dominant twice and gave up 7 runs to the Phillies. The other two games came against the Tigers (6 innings, 10 Ks, no runs on 3 hits) and Pirates (7 innings, 8 Ks, no runs on 2 hits). Bellieve it or not, you have to go all the way back to the 2015 season for his most recent appearance against the Dbacks. Which kind of makes sense since he was in the AL so long. That was actually his only appearance against the Dbacks, too. Goldy homered and our starter was Chase Anderson.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ARI/ARI201508280.shtml
Conclusion
Well, we definitely have our work cut out for us in this series. I think this comes down to which Gallen shows up. I have a feeling the Cardinals take the series. 2-1, but Gallen’s performance tonight could swing that.