A pair of National League teams on opposite sides of the playoff cut line close out their weekend set on the diamond in the nation’s capital. The St. Louis Cardinals are on the road as they finish up a three-game series with the Washington Nationals Sunday afternoon. In the opening game of the series Friday night, the Redbirds picked up a 6-2 victory to draw first blood and set themselves up for a series win regardless of what transpired Saturday in the middle game of the set. This article was published prior to the conclusion of the middle game of the series at Nationals Park, which was slated for Saturday night.
St. Louis won their second straight after losing three of four as they took the opening game of the series with the Nationals Friday night. The Cardinals entered Saturday second in the NL Central, three games behind the Brewers for the top spot. In the NL wild card race, St. Louis was tied with Philadelphia for the final wild card spot. On Friday night, St. Louis got two hits from Andrew Knizer (run) while Nolan Gorman (his 11th) and Lars Nootbaar (his fifth) each went deep in the contest. Miles Mikolas (8-8) earned the win on the mound as he threw seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Andre Pallante is in line to take the mound for his 28th appearance and 10th start of the year for the Cardinals in this contest. He comes in 3-4 with a 3.53 ERA, a 1.473 WHIP, 26 walks and 51 strikeouts over 74 innings of work this season. Pal lante didn’t factor in the decision in his last start, which came against the Blue Jays on the road Tuesday night. He threw four innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts in a game the Cardinals went on to lose 10-3. In his last three starts, Pallante is 1-0 with a 5.52 ERA, a 1.77 WHIP, four walks and 13 strikeouts over 14.2 innings of work. This marks his first career appearance and start against the Nationals in this, his 28th career major league appearance and 10th start. As a result, this marks his first career outing at Nationals Park as well.