A pair of bitter NL Central rivals continue their weekend set on the diamond in the Gateway City. The Chicago Cubs are on the road as they play the middle game of a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday night. Chicago salvaged the finale of a three-game set north of the border with the Blue Jays as they prevailed 7-5 Wednesday night. St. Louis took two of three on the road from the Reds as they prevailed 5-3 in 13 innings Wednesday night in their most recent contest. This article was published prior to the conclusion of the opening game of the series on Friday night at Busch Stadium.
Chicago dropped the first two games of their series with Toronto thanks to meltdowns from their bullpen before managing to hang on for the win Wednesday to avoid a sweep. The Cubs entered Friday third in the NL Central race, 20 games behind the Cardinals for the top spot in the division. They were 16.5 games behind the Padres for the final wild card spot in the National League. On Wednesday, Chicago got two hits each from Zach McKinstry (RBI) and Ian Happ (run, RBI) while Franmil Reyes hit his 13th homer of the season in the victory. Luke Farrell didn’t factor in the decision as he threw two innings, allowing two runs on two hits with no walks and two strikeouts. Manuel Rodriguez (1-0) earned the win with two scoreless innings of relief, allowing no hits with no walks and one strikeout. Rowan Wick threw a scoreless ninth, allowing no hits with one walk and one strikeout, for his ninth save.
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Drew Smyly takes the mound for the Cubs in this one as he makes his 19th start of the season in this contest. He comes in 5-7 with a 3.24 ERA, a 1.202 WHIP, 20 walks and 73 strikeouts over 89 innings of work on the year. Smyly didn’t factor in the decision in his last start, which came on the road against the Brewers last Saturday. He threw six innings, allowing no runs on five hits with one walks and two strikeouts in a game the Cubs lost 7-0. In his last three starts, Smyly has a 0-1 record with a 1.47 ERA, a 0.87 WHIP, three walks and 12 strikeouts over 18.1 innings of action. Smyly makes his fifth career start against the Cardinals here. He has a 1-1 record, a 2.61 ERA, a 1.161 WHIP, 10 walks and 17 strikeouts over 20.2 innings of work against them. In his lone start at Busch Stadium, which came with Atlanta on August 4, 2021, he didn’t factor in the decision. Smyly threw four innings, allowing three runs on six hits with one walk and two strik eouts over four innings in a game the Braves went on to win 7-4.