The St Louis Cardinals (13-25, 5th NL Central) pay a visit to Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on Friday to play game one of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox (22-16, 3rd AL East). St Louis was defeated by the Chicago Cubs 10-4 on Wednesday snapping a three-game winning streak. St Louis was off on Thursday. Boston defeated the Atlanta Braves 5-2 on Wednesday, snapping a two-game losing streak. The Red Sox were also off on Thursday. St Louis will play without three pitchers as well as position player Tyler O'Neill. Boston will play without six pitchers as well as position players Christian Arroyo, Yu Chang, Adam Duvall, Adallberto Mondesi and Trevor Story.
The St Louis Cardinals have had problems on the mound through the first month and a half of the regular season with a 4.64 ERA which is 21st. St Louis drops to 27th in WHIP at 1.49 as well as in Quality Starts with just seven. The pitching staff is allowing opposing hitters to average .274 at the plate which is 28th. Miles Mikolas is the leader in strikeouts for St Louis with 41. On Friday, the St Louis Cardinals will hand the ball to Adam Wainwright. This season the right hander is 0-0 with an ERA of 7.20 and five strikeouts.
St Louis is holding its own at the plate, as the Cardinals are 11th in each of the following: runs scored with 169, on base percentage at .328 and slugging percentage at .418. St Louis improves to ninth in team batting average at .258. Nolan Gorman is the team le ader in home runs and RBI with eight and 24 respectively, while Paul Goldschmidt is second in both with seven home runs and 20 RBI. St Louis has nine players with 10 RBI or more. As a team, St Louis has hit 67 doubles, four triples and 45 home runs in 38 games.