The St. Louis Cardinals enter the Sunday finale against Atlanta with a record of 63-34, a season-best 29 games over the .500 mark.
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With the earlier start time, manager Mike Matheny has made a couple of changes to the regular lineup as Tony Cruz will be behind the plate, Pete Kozma at shortstop, and Stephen Piscotty starts at first base.
“Today’s a day we just needed, Mark’s still a little sore from where he got hit–still be available to come off the bench,” explained Matheny. “We weren’t necessarily planning on Mark being off today, but Yadi and Jhonny were two we already had ear-marked for today. Fortunate we were able to pull off a couple of wins and Stephen’s going to get a good opportunity for us to get a look at him, at least for part of the game and then we can do whatever we have to do late.”
Piscotty picked up his first ML RBI as he drove in the lone run in Saturday’s game with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly.
Reynolds was hit in the hand by a pitch last night and is still dealing with swelling–Matheny described it as the bottom of the hand being pinched by the bat at impact.
Kolten Wong, 2B
Matt Carpenter, 3B
Matt Holliday, LF
Jason Heyward, RF
Randal Grichuk, CF
Stephen Piscotty, 1B
Tony Cruz, C
Pete Kozma, SS
Michael Wacha, P
GARCIA STARTS TUESDAY
–After discussing the possibility on Saturday, Mike Matheny confirmed that Jaime Garcia will start for the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday against the Cincinnati Reds. Garcia has been on the disabled list since July 4th due to a groin strain, but pitched five innings of no-hit baseball in his rehab start last week in Peoria.
John Lackey will gain an extra day of rest as his next start is moved back to Wednesday.
