The St. Louis Cardinals (44-54, 4th NL Central) conclude a four-game series in the Windy City on Sunday when visiting Wrigley Field to play the Chicago Cubs (46-51, 3rd NL Central). St Louis was defeated by Chicago on Friday night 4-3 in the second game of their four-game series. The Cardinals defeated the Cubs on Thursday night in the opening game 7-2. St Louis has won six of the last seven, while Chicago has won three of the last four. St Louis will play without six pitchers as well as position players Brendan Donovan and Tommy Edman. Chicago will play without six pitchers as well as position players Nick Madrigal and Dansby Swanson.
The St Louis Cardinals are on a precipice as the Cardinals are close to falling out of playoff contention and the biggest reason is poor performances on the mound. St Louis is 22nd in team ERA at 4.49, 25th in Quality Starts with 28, 27th WHIP at 1.45 and 28th in batting average allowed with .272. Jack Flaherty is leading St Louis in victories with seven and in strikeouts with 102. Jordan Montgomery gets the nod on the mound Sunday for St Louis. This season the left-hander is 6-7 with an ERA of 3.14 and 101 strikeouts.
St Louis is performing well at the plate as the Cardinals are in the top 10 of four major categories. St Louis is sixth in on base percentage with .332, 7th in slugging percentage with .430 and 10th in both runs scored with 464 and team batting average at .257. Nolan Are nado is leading St Louis in home runs with 21 and RBI with 76, while Nolan Gorman is second in home runs with 19 and 2nd in RBI with 61. St Louis has 11 players with 21 RBI or more. The Cardinals have hit 165 doubles, 8 triples and 133 home runs in 98 games.