Scott Rovak-USA TODAY Sports
The St. Louis Cardinals send another rookie, Shelby Miller, to the mound today in search of the 3 game sweep at home and 6 game season sweep over the Washington Nationals and their starter Jordan Zimmermann. This will be the last start for both pitchers this year in regular season and Zimmermann comes in with a 19-8 record and 3.18 ERA while Shelby is 14-9 with a 3.12 ERA.
In some good news for the Redbirds it appears Matt Holliday will be making his first start after missing the last three due to back spasms. Matt was red hot before going down with the injury and the Cardinals need him to contribute as they continue to fight for the NL Central title as well as the NL best over all record. With 4 games remaining for the entire NL Central contending teams the Cards lead the Pirates by 2 games and the Reds by 3. The Cardinals also trail the Atlanta Braves by 1/2 game, they have 5 games remaining, for the best record in the NL and home field advantage. The Braves own the tie breaker between the two teams so the Redbirds realistically have to win out to have a legitimate shot at home field.
Join us today during the day game to discuss the game, the upcoming playoffs and we will also keep an eye on the Cincinnati Reds game that is starting an hour earlier. A Reds loss with a Cardinal win today will eliminate the Reds from winning the NL Central. We will also keep an eye on the Pittsburgh Pirates game at the Chicago Cubs that starts an hour after the Cardinals begin. So a lot of playoff impacting games going on this afternoon and we will be discussing and monitoring all of it.