Cardinals look for a series win in today’s rubber game.
The St. Louis Cardinals were shut out by the Houston Astros on Tuesday night. The Cardinals were only outhit by the Astros 7 hits to 6, but where 1 for 7 with runners and scoring position and were out-homered by the Astros 1 homer to none.
That’s how today’s rubber match came to be. Ronel Blanco is scheduled to take the mound for the Astros. In just under 12 innings Blanco has a 30.2% increase in his strikeout percentage, a pretty significant jump from 2024 where he struck out 24.6% of batters. It goes without saying that it is really early to draw any conclusions from 2025 data, but I will mention it anyway. The increase in strikeouts might be attributed to an increase in how often he throws his curveball. The pitch has been his most valuable so far despite only being thrown 22.4% of the time. Blanco also throws a four-seamer up in the zone at about 93 mph, a slider that so far looks to be catching too much of the heart of the plate, and changeup that so far he has basically swapped usage with the curveball.
The Cardinals will send Steven Matz to the mound instead of Andre Pallante, who is the regularly scheduled pitcher in the rotation. This will be Matz first start of the season after pitching over 11 innings out the bullpen. He was having a little success in the ‘pen, at least in run prevention, despite not striking out many batters. The Cardinals are utilizing a 6-man rotation for this stretch of games where they will play 13 consecutive games without an off day.
Today’s Matchup beings at 12:15 PM CT
Ronel Blanco (2.80 ERA/4.15 FIP/4.09 xFIP)*
vs.
Steven Matz (5.08 ERA/4.88 FIP/4.50 xFIP)*
*2024 stats
How to watch:
Watch on: FanDuel Sports Midwest
Listen on: KMOX 1120 AM/104.1 FM, WJIR AM 880 (En Espanol)
Players to Watch
STL – Nolan Arenado – I was tempted to say the left-handed-hitting Brendan Donovan here, but I decided to go with Arenado instead. Blanco has been leaving his slider too high up in the zone and I think Arenado is going to connect with one.
HOU – Jeremy Peña – Peña leads the Astros in ISO at .172. He doesn’t strikeout much at 16.7% and doesn’t walk much at 7.6%. This means most of his outcomes are balls in play. When he is up to the bat, chances are something is going to happen.