The St. Louis Cardinals have climbed back to .500 by winning four of their last six games.
Their victories have come over some of the best pitchers in the game: Paul Skenes, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Framber Valdez.
The Cardinals will try to keep rolling Tuesday night when they host the Houston Astros in the middle game of a three-game set.
St. Louis won the opener 8-3 Monday.
“What we’re focused on is being a relentless bunch, right?” Cardinals infielder Brendan Donovan told FanDuel Midwest. “Win or loss, we’re just trying to give them hell out there. That’s the approach we’re going to continue to take.”
Donovan went 4-for-4 Monday to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. Third baseman Nolan Arenado is 5-for-8 in his last two games with three doubles, a homer and three RBIs. And first baseman Willson Contreras is 5-for-12 in his last three games with a double, homer and four RBIs.
“Good baseball,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “The boys are going about it the right way. I love what we saw (Monday) out of a lot of guys.”
The Cardinals on Tuesday will start right-hander Erick Fedde (1-1, 4.20 ERA), who no-hit and blanked the Pirates for six innings in his last start — his team’s 2-1, 13-inning loss on Wednesday. He walked four and exited the game after 88 pitches.
“Keeping him fresh early on is going to be important, to make sure we get the most out of him down the road,” Marmol said.
In Fedde’s only career appearance against the Astros, he allowed three runs on five hits in four innings in 2022.
The Astros will counter Fedde with right-hander Hunter Brown (1-0, 2.00 ERA), who has met the quality start metric in all three outings this season. Brown pitched six scoreless innings in Seattle on Wednesday in his most recent start while holding the Mariners to two hits.
“He just continues to build and build more confidence,” Astros manager Joe Espada said.
Brown will make his first career appearance against the Cardinals.
Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena continued his hot hitting with a three-run home run Monday. He is 7-for-23 during a six-game hitting streak, with five runs and five RBIs.
Third baseman Isaac Paredes carried a 12-for-31 surge into this series. He hit three homers and drove in five runs during Houston’s weekend set against the Los Angeles Angels before going 0-for-3 with a walk on Monday.
Espada has been using Paredes in the No. 2 slot, ahead of Yordan Alvarez.
“We knew coming in that he was good, but I did not know he was this good at controlling the zone,” Espada said of Paredes. “Yordan behind him, he gets to see a ton of pitches when he’s on deck because this guy controls the zone, which is a good thing.”
Astros second baseman Brendan Rodgers remained out of the starting lineup Monday with a sore hip. He came off the bench and lined out as a pinch hitter.
–Field Level Media
