The St Louis Cardinals (22-29, 4th NL Central) visit Progressive Field on Friday for the first game of a three-game interleague series against the Cleveland Guardians (21-28, 3rd AL Central). St. Louis was defeated by the Cincinnati Reds 10-3 on Wednesday and has lost two of the last three. Cleveland was defeated by the Chicago White Sox 6-0 in its most recent outing on Wednesday. The Guardians have lost two straight and five of the last six. St Louis will play without three pitchers and position players Dylan Carlson and Tyler O'Neill. Cleveland will play without four pitchers including three starters and one reliever.
The St Louis Cardinals have the 7th best team batting average at .262, the fourth best on base percentage at .335 and the fifth best slugging percentage at .442. St Louis has scored 261 runs which is fifth best. Nolan Gorman is leading St Louis in home runs with 13 and in RBI with 39. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt are second in home runs with nine each and Arenado is second in RBI with 34. St Louis has hit 91 doubles, five triples and 72 home runs in 51 games.
On the mound, St Louis has struggled as the Cardinals are 21st in team ERA at 4.46 and 27th in WHIP at 1.46. The starting rotation for St Louis has only 10 Quality Starts which is 25th and the pitching staff is allowing opponents to average .270 at the plate which is 27th. Jack Flaherty is the leader in strikeouts for St Lou is with 54. The Cardinals will hand the ball to Matthew Liberatore on Friday. This season the left-hander is 1-0 with an ERA of 3.00 and seven strikeouts