2 keys for the St. Louis Cardinals’ second spring training game

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Houston Astros, 4-2, last time out. Today, they face off against the New York Mets. First pitch is scheduled for 12:10.

The St. Louis Cardinals kicked off Spring Training with an interesting 4-2 victory over the Houston Astros. Compiling just three hits, the Cardinals amassed six walks on the afternoon and capitalized on a Houston rotation that lacked control all game.

For their second outing of spring training, the Cardinals are marching out nearly the exact same starting lineup. The only difference is that Edmundo Sosa will be the squad’s DH against the New York Mets.

Coming into this second matchup, the newly-acquired National League DH role will be something to track. In his first effort, Lars Nootbaar went 0-2 with two strikeouts and a walk. On the other hand, Sosa entered the game at shortstop and proceeded to go 0-2 with two strikeouts.

If these are the main two players vying for the DH role on a daily basis, something is going to have to give. While there is only one game in the books of a long season, it was not a good start for either of these hitters.

Recently-signed OF/DH Corey Dickerson could see reps in the DH role this afternoon. That would make at least three players competing for the DH position.

Moving on to the pitching side of things, the Cardinals are going with Miles Mikolas as their day-two starter. Mikolas struggled in his nine games last season. Posting a win-loss record of 2-3 with a 4.23 ERA across 44.2 innings pitched, Mikolas is looking to get back to the numbers he posted in his breakout 2018 campaign, where he brought home an 18-4 record with a 2.83 ERA.

While he is likely to only pitch an inning or two, Mikolas will face the top half of a potent Mets lineup on Monday. If he can navigate the power hitters effectively, it could provide extra confidence heading into the start of the regular season. With Jack Flaherty sidelined for the foreseeable future, Mikolas is going to be the number-two option at this point, so he will need to snag all the confidence he can get early on.

As the Cardinals enter their second game of spring training, those are the primary points of interest. They need to focus on the DH role and secure top-notch starting pitching from their current number-two guy.