Series Preview 7/2-4: Cardinals at Mariners

Dropping two of three games in San Diego over the weekend puts St. Louis at 41-41 as the season flips to July. The Cardinals are in third place in the National League Central division, with the Brewers at the top and the Cubs in second.

After a day off on Monday, the Cardinals are in Seattle for a three-game series with the Mariners. The Mariners are 37-51 and sit in the basement of the American League West, 17 1/2 games behind the division-leading Astros.

In Tuesday’s game, Matt Carasiti and Jack Flaherty will be the pitching matchup. Carasiti is making his third appearance as an opener for the Mariners, a team he signed with just three weeks ago.

This will be Flaherty’s first time facing the Mariners. Flaherty will look to rebound after he allowed a season-high seven runs to the Athletics in his last start. Opponents hit nine homers off Flaherty in his five June outings, and the Mariners won’t make July any easier. Daniel Vogelbach leads the current roster with 20 homers, followed by Domingo Santana with 18.

On Wednesday, Mike Leake and Adam Wainwright will face off. Leake, the former Cardinal, leads the Mariners with a 1.28 WHIP and is tied with Marco Gonzalez (another former Cardinal) for the team lead with 76 strikeouts. This will be Leake’s 18th start of the season, as he is well on his way to extending his streak to eight seasons of at least 30 starts.

Wainwright whiffed nine Oakland batters in his last start, one where he made it to two outs in the seventh inning. A pair of solo homers by Beau Taylor and Matt Chapman were Wainwright’s only blemishes in that outing, but St. Louis’s offense couldn’t make it up. Left-handed batters are hitting .320 off Wainwright in 2019, compared to the .224 that right-handed batters have mustered.

Michael Wacha will pitch in Thursday’s series finale. Wacha took a tough loss against the Padres on Friday. Wacha allowed just two runs over seven innings, his first seven-inning outing of the year. He also drove in St. Louis’s only run in that game. Wacha, who turned 28 years old on Monday, has combined to allow just three earned runs over his last 13 innings of work.

The Mariners have not confirmed who their starting pitcher will be for Thursday.

So, to recap:

Tuesday, 7/2, 9:10 | Carasiti v Flaherty | FSMW, KMOX, CRN

Wednesday, 7/3, 9:10 | Leake v Wainwright | MLB Network, FSMW, KMOX, CRN

Thursday, 7/4, 3:10 | TBD v Wacha | FSMW, KMOX, CRN

Notes from around the league:

• The baseball world was shocked and saddened on Monday to hear of the passing of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. Skaggs was found unconscious in his Texas hotel room on Monday afternoon and authorities pronounced him dead at the scene. The Angels-Rangers game on Monday was postponed, and the teams are expected to play on Tuesday. Skaggs pitched five scoreless innings against the Cardinals just over a week ago.