Series Preview – Royals @ Cards

Tonight the Cardinals open a series at home against the cross-state Kansas City Royals.  KC comes in with a 28-42 record, good enough for the second worst record in baseball.  St. Louis still maintains the second best record in the National League at 42-29, trailing the Chicago Cubs by 3.5 games.  The Baby Bears begin a series in Tampa Bay tonight, so this seems like a good opportunity for the Cardinals to gain some ground before heading off to Boston.

Joel Pineiro makes the start tonight for the Cards, with Kyle Davies starting for Kansas City.  Tomorrow night it’s Braden Looper against Brian Bannister, and Todd Wellemeyer and Zach Greinke scheduled for Thursday.  Wellemeyer’s start is still in question after feeling more arm discomfort in his last time out.  Looper is coming off one of his best starts.  His new approach and slower delivery helped him to his first career shutout last Wednesday.

Here are tonight’s lineups, courtesy of Rick Hummel:

Kansas City

1.  David DeJesus  CF
2.  Mike Aviles  SS
3.  Alex Gordon  3B
4.  Jose Guillen  LF
5.  Mark Grudzielanek  2B
6.  Mark Teahen  RF
7.  Miguel Olivo  C
8.  Ross Gload  1B
9.  Kyle Davies  P

St. Louis

1.  Skip Schumaker  LF
2.  Brendan Ryan  2B
3.  Ryan Ludwick  RF
4.  Rick Ankiel  CF
5.  Troy Glaus  3B
6.  Chris Duncan  1B
7.  Jason LaRue  C
8.  Joel Pineiro  P
9.  Cesar Izturis  SS

So with a lot of Birds mending their wings (or other various body parts), a lowly team like the Royals is a welcome site at Busch.  Let’s win another series boys!