The St. Louis Cardinals might be feeling comfortable in close games because they’ve played quite a few.
They’ll try to figure out a way to win Wednesday night’s series finale against the host Baltimore Orioles after a comeback in their latest game.
Close outcomes have defined the Cardinals during their good stretches this season. They rallied from a one-run hole after six innings in Tuesday night’s 7-4 victory to even the series against Baltimore.
“That’s the style of games we’ve been playing lately,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said.
The Cardinals are 4-2 in their last six one-run games, while the late-game offense in the middle contest of the series gave them more breathing room than is often the case.
The Orioles hope to have 26-year-old outfielder Dylan Carlson, who played four-plus seasons with the Cardinals, back in the swing of things after he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Tuesday night. He has been a focal point of this series after hitting a home run Sunday in Boston and another long ball Monday.
“He came out of spring training. He looked good. You guys all saw it. He had a great camp,” Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “He goes to Norfolk. That’s tough. When you go to the big leagues for five, six years and go back to Triple-A, there’s some soul searching that happens right there, and then you get back to the big leagues, and you sit for four days and then you might get a pinch hit against a late-inning reliever, and then we make assumptions that he can’t do it.
“The reality is he probably just needed an opportunity.”
The Cardinals will turn to right-hander Miles Mikolas (4-2, 3.51 ERA) as their starting pitcher Wednesday. He has a personal three-game winning streak while St. Louis has won his last five starts.
Mikolas has churned out at least five innings in six consecutive starts. This will mark the sixth road assignment in an eight-outing stretch for Mikolas, who’s 1-0 with a 2.92 ERA in two matchups against Baltimore in a big-league career that includes parts of 10 seasons.
Left-hander Cade Povich (1-3, 4.86 ERA) will start for the Orioles on Wednesday. He gave Baltimore five innings while allowing one run in a no-decision Friday at Boston. The Orioles lost 19-5.
“Trying to keep the team in the game and give them the best chance to win is what I’m really trying to do and what I feel like my job is,” Povich said. “Majority of the time when I’m able to do that, the bullpen’s able to come in and shut them down.”
Still, the Orioles have lost in each of his last three starts. Povich will face the Cardinals for the first time in his career.
Baltimore has a taxed bullpen after using five relievers Tuesday.
“We’ve been on fumes for a few days,” Mansolino said.
–Field Level Media
