The St. Louis Cardinals will play the Cincinnati Reds in Game 1 of their series at Great American Ball Park on Friday night.
The St. Louis Cardinals are 50-44 this season and have won five of their last seven games. St. Louis is coming off of a series win against these Cincinnati Reds at home, where they won both games played. The St. Louis pitching staff has a 3.75 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and a .244 opponent batting average this season. The Cardinals offense has scored 431 runs with a .251 batting average and a .320 on base percentage. Paul Goldschmidt is batting .330 with 20 home runs and 70 RBI’s for the Cardinals this season. The projected starter for St. Louis is Adam Wainwright, who is 6-7 with a 3.00 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP over 111 innings pitched this season.
The Cincinnati Reds are 34-57 this season and have lost three of their last four games. Cincinnati won two out of three games played against the Yankees in the series prior to losing both games in St. Louis. The Cincinnati pitching staff has a 5.30 ERA, a 1.43 WHIP, and a .256 opponent batting average. The Reds offense has scored 390 runs with a .239 batting average and a .308 on base percentage this year. Brandon Drury is batting .278 with 18 home runs and 52 RBI’s for the Reds this season. The projected starter for Cincinnati is Graham Ashcraft, who is 4-2 with a 4.45 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP over 54.2 innings pitched this season.