The St. Louis Cardinals begin a long West Coast road trip in Los Angeles Tuesday night to faceoff with the Dodgers. While the Cardinals have some question marks about who they’ll start in Los Angeles, the Dodgers starters are known and include Cy Young candidate Tarik Skubal. The Cardinals, however, will be adding some promising prospects to the MLB roster as they arrive in LA.
Here are the scheduled starters according to MLB.com:
Tuesday night, September 1: Eric Lauer (LHP 8-6, 4.78 ERA, 70 SO) vs
Michael McGreevy (RHP 5-9, 3.86 ERA, 98 SO)
Wednesday night, September 2: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (RHP 12-8, 2.56 ERA, 153 SO)
Thursday night, September 3: Tarik Skubal (LHP 8-7, 2.84 ERA, 153 SO)
Note that MLB.com has Michael McGreevy as the likely probable starter for Tuesday night’s game, so I’m penciling him in. For the Dodgers, Eric Lauer has won 2 of his last 3 decisions although his most recent outing on August 26 against the Dodgers saw him pitch for just 2 innings in a no-decision. His 2 starts previous to that against Colorado and Kansas City were victories where he tossed 5 innings against the Rockies and 6 1/3 versus the Royals allowing just 1 earned run against Kansas City. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is 1-1 over his last 3 appearances with his most recent game on August 27 vs the Braves being a loss, but he got no run support and threw 6 1/3 innings allowing just 4 hits and 1 earned run. Tarik Skubal is also 1-1 over his last 3 starts with the most recent being a memorable return to Detroit where he got a no-decision after throwing 6 innings allowing just 4 hits and 1 earned run.
Who are the Los Angeles Dodgers players to watch?
Shohei Ohtani – He leads the Dodgers with 30 home runs, 80 RBI’s with a .280 average, but it’s not known when or if he’ll return to the mound this season because of ongoing knee issues.
Max Muncy – He’s second on the Dodgers with 26 home runs, 68 RBI’s and a .280 average.
Andy Pages – The Dodgers centerfielder is having a great season with 21 home runs, 80 RBI’s and a .272 average
Mookie Betts – Mookie now has his home run total up to 16 with 47 RBI’s, but a batting average of just .247.
Freddie Freeman – Freddie Freeman leads the Dodgers with a .304 batting average along with 15 home runs and 63 RBI’s.
Teoscar Hernández – Teoscar currently has 12 home runs, 46 RBI’s and a .249 average.
Kyle Tucker – By his normal standards, Kyle Tucker is having a woeful year with just 11 home runs, 57 RBI’s and an average of only .228.
As far as the big picture goes, the Los Angeles Dodgers lead the NL West by 9 1/2 games and have won 6 of their last 10. The St. Louis Cardinals have only won 3 of their last 10, but remarkably still are only 5 back in the NL Wild Card race for the final spot currently occupied by Arizona, but the Padres and Marlins are also ahead of St. Louis, too. It’s possible the Cardinals could get a boost to the rotation if Andre Pallante is able to appear in the series against the Dodgers, but the St. Louis rotation has a lot of question marks for this West Coast swing. There’s also talk that Masyn Winn could return to the lineup sooner rather than later, but that remains to be seen.
The big story for the Cardinals in Los Angeles is the arrival of Leo Bernal who reportedly will be joining the team Tuesday. Right-handed pitcher Hancel Rincon will also be a part of the September roster expansion.
The motivation for the Dodgers would be to catch the Brewers for the #1 seed in the NL as they’re currently 3 games behind Milwaukee. It feels unlikely the St. Louis Cardinals will get hot and seriously challenge for a playoff position, but stranger things have happened. With only 24 games remaining in the regular season, the math is not in the Cardinals favor.
