Series Preview: Cardinals Vs Cincinnati Reds

Apr 6, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter (13) scores on a base hit by St. Louis Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltran (3) (not pictured) during the first inning at AT

Overall Record: Cardinals, 3-3 2nd in NL Central, Reds, 4-2, 1st in NL Central

Location: Busch Stadium, St.Louis, Missouri.

Dates and Times: Monday April 8th, 3:15 CT

Tuesday April 9th, 7:15 CT

Wednesday, April 10th, 12:45 CT

Probable Starters: Mat Latos (0-0, 4.05 ERA) vs Jaime Garcia (1-0, 1.59 ERA)

Bronson Arroyo (1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs Lance Lynn (0-0, 9.00 ERA)

Homer Bailey (1-0,  0.00 ERA) vs Jake Westbrook (0-1, 0.00 ERA)

Last Series: The Cardinals leave San Francisco having taken 2 of 3 from the defending World Champs including a 14-3 rout on Sunday afternoon. The Reds head to St.Louis after taking 2 of 3 from the Nationals at Great American Ballpark.

Notes: Finally!!! At long last, Baseball returns to the Gateway City. The Cardinals open up the 2013 home schedule with a 3 game set against the defending champions of the Central Division. The Cardinals and Reds are expected to be the top two teams in the Central all year long so even though this is an early season series, it will surely attract attention. The pitching matchups should be interesting as the Cards will go up against Mat Latos, Bronson Arroyo, and Homer Bailey. The big game of course being the game on Monday with Opening Day in St.Louis, the Cards will want to win that one for sure to get the home schedule started off right.

Scale of importance: This is a big series I think. Yes, it’s early in the year, but it’s the first home series of the year for the Redbirds, and they’ll want to show the Reds that they’ll be able to contend with them all year long in the Central Division. It should be a great series to watch and I’m looking forward to it. I’m giving this series, a 7 on the scale of importance.