St. Louis will try to bounce back from its series loss in Cincinnati when it travels to Toronto for Tuesday night’s game. The Cardinals dropped two out of three in their series against the Reds, including a 6-3 loss on Sunday. Toronto brings some momentum into this series after sweeping its three-game set at Boston over the weekend. Both teams had the day off on Monday.
St. Louis is trying to fight for the National League Central crown, which makes its series loss at Cincinnati that much more disappointing. The Cardinals had a strong finish to the first half of the season, winning five of their final seven games. They wrapped things up by taking a pair of contests against the Reds, but Cincinnati was able to get revenge to open the second half of the campaign. St. Louis won on Saturday, but Cincinnati picked up the series win with victories on Friday and Sunday. The Cardinals are now 2.5 games back of Milwaukee atop the NL Central standings. They are one game ahead of Philadelphia for the final NL Wild Card spot, though.
For the second time this season, Paul Goldschmidt is the NL Player of the Week! pic.twitter.com/tzVlGMBtR0
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 25, 2022
The Cardinals have been a solid offensive team, ranked ninth in the majors in batting average (.251). First baseman Paul Goldschmidt leads the way with 118 hits, including 24 home runs. He has also driven in a team-best 77 RBIs. Center fielder Harrison Bader and veteran catcher Yadier Molina both remain sidelined due to injuries. They will be facing a Toronto pitching staff that is No. 16 with an ERA of 3.94. Right-handed pitcher Andre Pallante is set to start for St. Louis on Tuesday. He allowed three runs on six hits and three walks across five innings against Cincinnati his last time out. The rookie has struggled in three starts this month, allowing 13 runs through 14.1 innings. He still has solid numbers overall this season, entering this start with a 3.34 ERA across 70 innings.