The Detroit Tigers take on the St. Louis Cardinals in game one of a makeup doubleheader on Thursday afternoon. The Cardinals are still playing catch up as they try to make up as many games as possible from their two-week COVID-19 break. This will be St. Louis’ third doubleheader in six days. These two teams were supposed to play a four-game series in August. Both teams are fighting to get into this year’s expanded playoffs. The Cardinals are currently in second place in the National League Central Division, and would be in the playoffs right now, while the Tigers sit just 1.5 games behind the New York Yankees (pending the outcome of the Yankees game on Wednesday) for the eighth and final postseason slot in the American League.
Tigers try to bounce back from embarrassing loss
The Detroit Tigers have now lost six of their last eight games after getting pummeled by the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 19-0 on Wednesday night. Six Detroit pitchers gave up 21 hits, including five home runs, as the Detroit batters could manage just two hits, both by Willi Castro, who raised his batting average to .377 in just 20 games.
“They got after him pretty good. It was just one of those bad days that led to more bad," Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said about starter Matthew Boyd on espn.com. "Not much good happened for us other than no one got hurt."
The Tigers are led offensively by Jeimer Candelario, who is batting .312 with a team-leading 23 RBI. Jonathan Schoop leads Detroit in home runs with eight bombs this season. The Tigers are hitting .253 this season, while they have hit 51 home runs. Their pitching has been pretty bad this season, as they have a 5.35 ERA as a team.
Tarik Skubal takes the mound for the Tigers in game one of the twinbill. He is 1-1 this season with a 4.70 ERA in four starts. His last outing was his best, as he went six innings and gave up just one run on two hits. He has never face the Cardinals.
Cardinals look to keep stranglehold on playoff spot
The St. Louis Cardinals hold a two-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for second place in the NL Central Division with anywhere from 23 to 25 games remaining. The Cardinals have played 35 games, but only have 23 games scheduled the rest of the season. The extra two games would be the remaining two of their series with the Tigers from earlier in the season. There is no word yet if they will make those games up. St. Louis comes into game one of the doubleheader having won four of their last six games and seven of their last 11.
The Cardinals split a doubleheader on Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins in their last time out.
It speaks to what we've been doing for awhile now -- grinding out at-bats, taking tough at-bats, battling our tails off," Shildt said about his team’s performance on Tuesday on mlb.com. "Those guys did it today for sure. That was a grind out win in that second game. Punch right back, you're down 2-0 in that second game and you come back with a five-spot."
Paul Goldschmidt tops the Cardinals with the seventh-best batting average in baseball at .330. He also has the best OPS on the team at .961. Brad Miller leads St. Louis with five home runs and 21 RBI this season, while hitting .282 with a .945 OPS. The Cardinals have lacked in the power department this season, as they have hit just 31 homers in their 35 games. Outfielder Dexter Fowler, who is hitting .279 with four home runs and 14 RBI is on the COVID-19 IL.
Jack Flaherty makes his sixth start of the season on Thursday for St. Louis. He is 2-1 with a 2.95 ERA in his first five starts. Flaherty is coming off his worst start of the season in which he gave up three runs in 2.2 innings. He gave of four runs combined over his first four starts. Flaherty has faced Detroit once in his career, in 2018, giving up three runs on four hits in five innings for a 5.40 ERA.
Notable Trends
Trends found on oddsshark.com:
- The Cardinals are 4-2 in their last six games overall
- The Cardinals are 7-3 in their last 10 home games versus Detroit
- The Tigers are 2-6 in their last eight games overall
- The Tigers are 1-4 in their last five games on the road
