The hottest team in the National League strolls into Philadelphia on Monday when the St. Louis Cardinals visit the Phillies in the opener of a three-game series.
St. Louis has won eight straight games, including a sweep of the Washington Nationals over the weekend. They outscored the Nationals 20-3 during the three-game series and have outscored their opponents 25-3 over their last four games, dating back to their series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates last week.
In Sunday’s 6-1 triumph over Washington, Lars Nootbaar, Willson Contreras and Nolan Arenado homered for the Cardinals, while starting pitcher Miles Mikolas (2-2) allowed one run over 5 1/3 innings.
“We’ve done some good things with getting production from everybody in the lineup,” Nootbaar said. “When you add that with run production when guys are in scoring position and scoring early – and, obviously, our pitching staff has been unbelievable — so it’s a combination of those three things.”
St. Louis is tied with the Minnesota Twins (currently) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (two previous occasions) for the longest winning streak in the majors this season.
Matthew Liberatore (3-3, 3.07 ERA) gets the nod for St. Louis, having allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last five starts.
The 25-year-old left-hander held the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run and three hits in seven innings — with a season-high eight strikeouts — in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory.
“I’m not sure where the extra life came from (on my fastball), but it was there tonight and it held through the whole game,” Liberatore said. “I kind of felt like I had everything working from the first pitch, and I was able to hold onto that through the seventh. I feel like I had a lot of weapons at my disposal tonight and I executed a lot of pitches.”
Liberatore has made eight career appearances (two starts) against the Phillies, going 1-0 with a 2.76 ERA.
The Phillies and Cardinals met a month ago in St. Louis, where the Cardinals captured two of three — both by shutout. Liberatore allowed three hits in twirling six scoreless innings to lift the hosts to a 7-0 victory in the series finale.
While the Cardinals are scorching at the moment, the Phillies are no slouch. Philadelphia has won five of its last six and enters this series with an 11-3 record in its last 14 games. The team shut out the Cleveland Guardians 3-0 on Sunday night thanks to two homers from Kyle Schwarber and a dominant seven-inning performance from Zack Wheeler.
“We’re doing a really good job of staying within ourselves and … getting the big hit,” Schwarber said. “That’s something we’ve got to keep building on.”
Cristopher Sanchez (4-1, 2.89) would certainly enjoy some fireworks from Schwarber and the rest of the Phillies offense in Monday’s series opener. That said, the lefty hasn’t needed much help of late.
Sanchez has won four of his last five starts and is coming off a stellar performance in which he yielded only one hit in six scoreless innings in a 7-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays last Wednesday.
“He’s matured,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s got some experience now, he trusts himself, he believes in himself and he keeps battling.”
–Field Level Media
