St. Louis Cardinals Face Big Test Against the Chicago Cubs

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Apr 17, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; A general view of Busch Stadium as the Cincinnati Reds play the St. Louis Cardinals during the seventh inning. The Cardinals won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

The St. Louis Cardinals have been playing well lately but are about to face their biggest test of the early season. Will they stay hot against the Cubs?

Since the sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates the St. Louis Cardinals have gone 7-2 against Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati. These are three teams that will be near the bottom of the standings all season long and the Cardinals treated them like that scoring a total of 78 runs in those nine games.

With that said, the Cardinals will go up against the 9-3 Chicago Cubs who had yet to lose a series until the series they just played against the Colorado Rockies. Until that series the Cubs were 8-1, and were riding high despite the loss of Kyle Schwarber to a devastating knee injury in the second game of the season.

Game 1 – Leake (0-1, 6.97 ERA) vs. Lackey (2-0, 5.68 ERA)

Game 1 of the series will be a matchup of Mike Leake vs. former Cardinal John Lackey. This will be quite the interesting game as it will be the first time John Lackey and Jason Heyward return to Busch Stadium since Game 2 of the NLDS against these very same Chicago Cubs.

Leake has not looked sharp in his two starts so far, and he will be looking to get the ball down and trust on his (unreliable) infielders to get the outs for him. Leake is not your flashy kind of pitcher, he is much like many Cardinals’ pitchers in the Dave Duncan era in that he needs to have the ball down and get ground balls to be successful.

Leake will be doing this against a Cubs team that owns a .403 slugging percentage against him in his career. Specifically, Anthony Rizzo has performed well against Leak as he has a .333 average with two homers in 30 at-bats.

With the way the ball has been flying at Busch Stadium lately, it is going to be even more important to keep the ball down against the Cubs’ potent lineup, that already has 13 homers this season.

Next: Game 2

Apr 14, 2016; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia (54) is congratulated by catcher Yadier Molina (4) after throwing a complete game one hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals won the game 7-0. Mandatory Credit: Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports /

Game 2 – Garcia (1-0, 2.43 ERA) vs. Hammel (1-0, 0.75 ERA)

Game 2 of the series will feature Jaime Garcia up against Jason Hammel. This will be yet another entertaining matchup, as Hammel and Garcia have good starts to the season, with Garcia tossing a one hit, 13K shutout in the win over the Brewers on Thursday.

The Cardinals will be looking to expose the Hammel who is normally no better than a back end of the rotation pitcher. This will be an opportunity for the Cardinals to get on top of yet another mediocre starting pitcher, especially given Hammel has a 5.97 ERA against the Cardinals in a total of seven starts.

Garcia will be looking to face his biggest test of the year and put up yet another quality start. It will be hard to put up the kind of performance he put up against the Brewers, but with the Cubs being a team that strikes out a lot it is not too out of reach.

This is going to be the game in the series that the Cardinals have to win. They will have the greatest pitching edge here, and they have to take advantage of it. This will be a statement of the Cardinals’ pitching depth in comparison to the Cubs’ lack of such depth.

Next: Game 3

Apr 9, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Carlos Martinez (18) throws the ball against the Atlanta Braves during the first inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /

Game 3 – Martinez (2-0, 3.46 ERA) vs. Hendricks (1-1, 2.84 ERA)

Game 3 will be another matchup that should favor the Cardinals, as Carlos Martinez will be going up against Kyle Hendricks. Hendricks owns a 4.91 career ERA at Busch Stadium, and Matt Carpenter are a combined 12-22 vs Hendricks with three homers.

With these two players already heating up it is going to be another chance for the Cardinals’s lineup to get going again.

Players to Watch For

Anthony Rizzo – Rizzo may only have a .200 average and a total of 10 strikeouts, but in the first 12 games Rizzo has three homers. This is evidence that Rizzo is going to have another potential MVP season.

The average will likely come for the young slugging first baseman, but while his slightly cool the Cardinals are going to want to take advantage of this and keep Kevin Siegrist away from him.

Dexter Fowler – When the move to re-sign Dexter Fowler was made, I scoffed at it due to Fowler’s streaky nature and poor defense. However, Fowler currently is hitting .417/.553/.722 with six extra base-hits (two homers, three doubles, one triple) in his 36 at bats.

Jason Heyward – Heyward had an outstanding season for the Cardinals last season and it hurt to see him leave for the bitter rival who was improving. However, Heyward has just one double in the 12 games so far and is hitting .200 with nine strikeouts. Look for the Cardinals to take advantage of this and take advantage of the knowledge they have of him.

For the Cardinals, it will be interesting to see how the rookies Aledmys Diaz and Jeremy Hazelbaker perform in their first taste of the rivalry. We will also want to keep our eyes on whether or not Randal Grichuk and Matt Holliday can keep up their hot hitting and help the Cardinals’ offense stay hot.

Next: Series Prediction

Oct 10, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter (right) is congratulated by left fielder Matt Holliday (7) for hitting a solo home run during the first inning in game two of the NLDS against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports /

Series Prediction

I think the Cardinals have caught the Cubs at the perfect time of the season. They have hit a slight dry patch as they just lost two of three to the Rockies, and won’t be pitching their two best pitchers in Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta. The Cardinals will have their two best starters so far going with Garcia and Martinez going in games two and three.