The St. Louis Cardinals brought former catcher Yadier Molina back in uniform to add some spice to their weekend home series against their rival Chicago Cubs.
Molina was in the dugout as a guest coach during the Cardinals’ 5-0 win over the Cubs on Friday night. He will serve that role one more time as the series continues Saturday night in St. Louis.
“It was awesome,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “I had a really good time. … This guy, I love having him around. Just before the game being able to talk to him and then during the game, situationally, it was fun. I’ll take that any day.”
St. Louis will continue this series with starting pitcher Andre Pallante (6-8, 4.57 ERA), who allowed just two runs on six hits over 12 innings in his past two starts. The right-hander struck out eight batters and walked four while getting 16 ground-ball outs.
Pallante allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks in a 3-0 loss to the Cubs on June 26. He is 0-3 with a 2.67 ERA in 11 career appearances against Chicago, including four starts.
While the Cubs added former Cardinals reliever Andrew Kittredge to their bullpen ahead of the deadline, St. Louis subtracted closer Ryan Helsley, set-up man Phil Maton and middle reliever Steven Matz.
It fell to Matt Svanson, JoJo Romero and Riley O’Brien to close out Friday’s shutout with an inning each. All three assumed more responsibility after the trade deadline.
“It’s just about me understanding my plan of attack, using my strengths against them and being ready for just about any situation, whether it’s the sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth,” Romero told MLB.com. “It’s the same mentality I’ve had with not worrying so much about the role. I have one role and that’s being ready when my name is called.”
The Cardinals claimed Jorge Alcala off waivers from the Boston Red Sox on Thursday to gain another relief option.
After winning their first two games after the All-Star break, the Cubs have gone 7-10. In their past three losses, they scored just three runs combined.
The Cubs went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position Friday as their offensive struggles continued.
“We didn’t score enough runs, we didn’t win a game tonight, we [go] on to tomorrow,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “We didn’t swing the bats poorly. We didn’t sequence the offense very good. With runners in scoring position, Carson (Kelly) scored two balls, (Kyle) Tucker hits the ball to a wall.”
Earlier in the week Counsell expressed confidence that his team would get back on track offensively.
“This is a very good offensive baseball team,” he said. “It will happen. You never enjoy going through stretches like this. When you’re slumping, you kind of feel like you’re pressing because you’re not getting any good results.”
The Cubs on Saturday will turn to right-hander Colin Rea (8-5, 4.23), who has allowed 11 earned runs on 20 hits over 13 2/3 innings in his last three starts.
Rea earned an 11-3 victory over the Cardinals on July 4 while holding them to one run on two hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four and allowed a home run by Brendan Donovan.
In his career, Rea is 2-3 with a 3.89 ERA in 10 appearances (eight starts) against St. Louis.
–Field Level Media
