St. Louis will be looking to extend its four-game winning streak when it travels to Arizona on Friday night for a series opener. The Cardinals swept the Rockies earlier this week, including a 13-0 shutout on Thursday afternoon. Arizona picked up a series split against San Francisco with a win on Thursday.
St. Louis lost three of its first four games after returning from the All-Star break, falling to just four games above the .500 mark. The Cardinals have been in excellent form since then, winning 15 of their last 19 games. They took two out of three in a series against Milwaukee at home last weekend before wrapping up the six-game homestand with a sweep against Colorado. St. Louis put an exclamation mark on the series with a 13-0 blowout on Thursday, as Albert Pujols hit a grand slam for his 690th career home run. The Cardinals have continued to stretch their lead in the National League Central, putting 3.5 games between themselves and Milwaukee atop the standings.
Who is having more fun, Albert or us? pic.twitter.com/WH6TTsbjx3
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 18, 2022
They have been a great offensive team this season, ranked sixth in the MLB in team batting average. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who is considered the favorite to win the NL MVP, leads the way with 139 hits. He has 29 home runs and has driven in 94 runs, while third baseman Nolan Arenado is batting .293 with 25 homers. They will be facing an Arizona pitching staff that is No. 21 with an ERA of 4.09. Right-handed pitcher Miles Mikolas is going to be on the mound for St. Louis on Friday night. He allowed two runs on four hits across eight strong innings against Milwaukee on Sunday. Mikolas had allowed 10 runs in 2.2 innings against Colorado in his previous outing, so it was a much-needed bounce back performance. He has six quality starts in his last eight tries, and he brings a solid 3.44 ERA into this outing.