The St. Louis Cardinals are trying to move on from a 1-6 road trip against the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves.
St. Louis returned home this weekend to take two games from the Milwaukee Brewers and improve to 10-4 at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals, who are a dreadful 2-11 on the road, will go for the three-game series sweep Sunday afternoon.
St. Louis won 3-2 on Friday, then 6-5 Saturday on Nolan Arenado’s walk-off solo homer.
“Guys are playing good; we’re playing hard, man,” Arenado told Fan Duel Sports Network. “Nothing is rattling us. Losing stinks, but we’re battling. We’re battling to the end.”
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said he is pleased with the resilience his team showed by setting aside those road losses.
“Obviously a tough road trip, but those guys have done a phenomenal job of (keeping) each game its own game,” Marmol said. “Even within a game, each inning is its own inning.
“I like the way they are going about it. They were able to flush that trip and get back after it. Their work has been good. (Saturday’s) game, a lot of positive. We did some small-ball stuff really well, drove the baseballs well, some doubles. … A lot to be proud of for sure.”
The Cardinals on Sunday plan to start right-hander Erick Fedde (1-2, 3.33 ERA), who has met the quality start metric in four of his five starts this season.
Fedde is 2-2 with a 4.82 ERA in six career outings against the Brewers, including five starts. But he has walked 14 batters in 21 innings while going 0-2 this month.
The Brewers will start left-hander Jose Quintana (3-0, 0.96 ERA), who has allowed just 14 hits and two runs in his 18 2/3 innings over three starts. He became the first Brewers pitcher to win his first three starts for the team since CC Sabathia won four in a row starting his Milwaukee tenure in 2008.
Quintana held the Giants to one run on six hits in his last start, an 11-3 victory at San Francisco on Tuesday.
“I think we’ve said this every time: It’s good to have him on our side,” Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said. “We’ve seen that a bunch.”
Quintana briefly pitched for the Cardinals in 2022. The veteran is 6-4 with a 3.95 ERA against them.
Milwaukee lost outfielder Garrett Mitchell to an oblique strain sustained in the loss on Friday.
“This doesn’t look to be that serious,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Saturday after Mitchell landed on the 10-day injured list. “Hopefully, we’ll have him back soon.”
The Brewers promoted outfielder Daz Cameron from Triple-A Nashville. Cameron, the son of former Milwaukee outfielder Mike Cameron, is back with the team he hung around with as a 12-year-old.
“I was out there fielding and shagging (fly balls); I can remember like it was yesterday,” Daz Cameron said. “During batting practice, I would go out there and run some balls down in the gap, catch them, make sure it was in my glove when I caught it.”
Murphy said Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio will play center field in Mitchell’s absence. Frelick got the start there Saturday, but he exited mid-game after overthrowing a cutoff man.
–Field Level Media
