The St. Louis Cardinals face a big series against the Chicago Cubs

The St. Louis Cardinals currently hold the second wild-card spot at 48-44, but they still have a lot of games left and are less than comfortable with just one game out of third place. They face the Chicago Cubs in four games this weekend, with a doubleheader on Saturday.

The Cardinals and Cubs have already faced each other in two series – the Cardinals have a 4-1 record in those games (with one of the games being played due to rain in this upcoming series). So by now we know what the Cubs are all about. They are 18th in the league with a team wRC+ of 96. The best hitter was Michael Busch, who hit .278/.369/.484 for 141 wRC+. Christopher Morel leads the team in home runs with 16.

Baseball Reference has listed two possible candidates for the Cubs: Kyle Hendricks and Jameson Taillon. The starters for the doubleheader have yet to be determined. The Cardinals have faced these pitchers multiple times during their long tenures either specifically with the Cubs, in Hendricks’ case, or in the NL Central, in Taillon’s case. Hendricks has pitched in 27 games against the Cardinals, going 14-3 in those games with a 2.62 ERA over 171 innings. In recent years, he has decreased the frequency with which he throws his four seamer and relied more heavily on his changeup, but overall his pitch arsenal remains the same. He relies on 4 pitches: changeup (39.1%), sinker (35.9%), curveball (12.6%), and four seamer (12.4%).

Taillon and the Cardinals have less history, having faced each other just 14 times compared to 27. Taillon has a 5-2 record against the Cardinals with a 3.36 ERA. He looks very different from Hendricks. He throws five pitches with some regularity: four seamers (33.7%), cutters (23.3%), curveball (17.0%), sweepers (16.4%) and sinkers (6.7%). His cutter was his best pitch per run at 6, which puts him in the 90th percentile among pitchers in terms of fastball run value.

So that’s what’s next. And then we have the All Star break. It would be nice for the Cardinals to go into the break with a series win, wouldn’t it?

Pairings:

Friday, July 12, 7:15 p.m. CT: Kyle Hendricks vs. Sonny Gray
Saturday, July 13, 1:15 p.m. CT: TBD vs. Lance Lynn
Saturday, July 13, 7:15 p.m. CT: TBD vs. Kyle Gibson
Sunday, July 14, 1:15 p.m. CT: Jameson Taillon vs. Miles Mikolas