The St. Louis Cardinals are playing the Cincinnati Reds again - A Series Preview

In their return from the All Star Break the St. Louis Cardinals pick up where they left off: playing against the Cincinnati Reds. Hopefully that also means they continue their winning ways against the Reds. In their previous series last weekend the Cards took two of two games with Sunday’s game being postponed due to rain. For the season the Cardinals are 6-2 against the Reds.

The series begins with the Cardinals facing off against Graham Ashcraft, the Reds number 8 prospect. He was lined up to face the Cardinals on Sunday prior to the game being canceled. I discussed his pitching repertoire in the previous preview. The bottom line: his primary fastball is a cutter and it has been a good one.

On Sunday the Cardinals face Tyler Mahle. He has been on the Injured List, but apparently will be back on the roster by Sunday. I wrote about Mahle earlier in the season — he throws a splitter as his secondary pitch. It has not been a super successful pitch for his so far, but his four-seamer has had much better outcomes. His stats have normalized a bit since that first write-up: his ERA is down to 4.48 from 7.82 and his FIP is up to 3.54 from 1.95.

The only somewhat new pitcher to discuss is Mike Minor. Minor made his first start for the Reds in the beginning of June and this will be the first time the Cardinals face him this season. His pitching arsenal has not changed much over the years, but the outcomes on his pitches have gotten worse. His changeup has much less drop than previous years and so far in 2022 none of his pitches have a negative run value per Baseball Savant’s Run Value. He primarily throws a 4-seamers, followed by a slider and changeup, with an occasional curveball. On the season he has a 6.21 ERA with a 6.37 FIP and has given up 2.57 homers per nine. The Cardinals face Minor on Saturday.

Mike Moustakas was on the COVID IL for last weekend, but should be returning for this series while Max Schrock goes back down. That is the only major roster change that I see.

Matchups:

Friday, June 22 at 5:40pm CDT: TBD vs. Graham Ashcraft
Saturday, June 23 at 5:40pm CDT: TBD vs. Mike Minor
Sunday, June 24 at 12:40pm CDT: TBD vs. Tyler Mahle.