After their opening homestand fell short of expectations, the St. Louis Cardinals hit the road to Washington as they begin a six-game road trip tonight against the Nationals.
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“Nothing to worry about with the defense,” said third baseman Jhonny Peralta after he committed two errors in Sunday’s 8-0 loss. “It happens in the game. It happened to our team…the season is really long, so we’ll see what happens. I know there are a lot of games to play.”
The Cardinals dropped two of three games to both Chicago and Cincinnati to start the season and open today 2.0 games behind both the Cubs and Reds in the National League Central.
“We’re really confident,” added Peralta. “We have a good team, with guys–good defense. Sometimes it’s going to happen, the errors in a game. We don’t need to worry about that. Today, I know we lost the game but tomorrow is another day and we need to continue.”
“We need to continue to play, I know it’s really tough. Sometimes you try to do too much and nothing happens. Like I said, it’s the beginning of the season. It’s a long season and lot of good things happen, bad things happen.”
The Cardinals will play three games in Washington and then conclude the trip with three in New York against the Yankees.
“It’s good to get on the road now,” said Peralta, who will bat 6th tonight against the Nationals. “I know the home games, we try to win every game but it didn’t happen right now. We need to continue to play and now we’re on the road and try to win the game.”
#STLCards lineup vs. Washington (4/10):
Fowler CF
Diaz SS
Carpenter 1B
Piscotty RF
Molina C
Peralta 3B
Grichuk LF
Wong 2B
Wainwright RHP— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 10, 2017
With stadiums just 20 minutes apart, St. Louis and Washington saw a lot of each other this spring as the Cardinals went 7-0-1 against the Nationals in the Grapefruit League.
“It’s good to play a team that we faced a lot in Spring Training–I know what a pitcher can do,” said Peralta. “At the same time, the same for them. They see a lot of our pitching and defense too. It’s going to be a good series.”
Interesting enough, Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright did not face the Nationals at all this spring, while Washington starter Tanner Roark pitched only 3.0 innings against the Cardinals, giving up two hits and striking out four batters on February 27th.
Overall, Wainwright is 8-3 in 12 career stats against the Nationals. Roark has only three career appearances against St. Louis–losing a start in 2013 and two relief outings in 2015.
ROSENTHAL ACTIVATED
–As expected, the Cardinals activated pitcher Trevor Rosenthal (right lat strain) from the disabled list today. Pitcher Sam Tuivailala was optioned to Memphis (AAA) in the corresponding roster move.
Due to the injury, Rosenthal appeared in only five games (one start) in Spring Training. He went 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 10.0 innings pitched.
photo credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports, STLBaseballWeekly.com
