Injuries and availability
From the published research (2023-06-27T22:45:28.276Z). Availability may have changed; review the cited sources.In one season, the St. Louis Cardinals have gone from winning the NL Central title to the bottom of the standings. Despite their poor performance, they remain competitive, as no team has been able to gain a large lead in the division. Hoping for a reversal in their fortunes, the Cardinals celebrated a victory on Tuesday against the struggling Houston Astros, with starter Jordan Montgomery recording the win. The team now turns to veteran righty Miles Mikolas as they look to continue their momentum. With 16 appearances this season including six quality starts, Mikolas has an ERA of 4.23, a K/9 rate of 6.3, and a WHIP of 1.36. In his last start, he went seven innings and allowed two runs, though resulted in a loss for the Cardinals. Additionally, the team is currently without closer Ryan Helsley due to injury.
The Houston Astros have had their hands full this season in the competitive AL West Division. Despite a decade of strangleholds on the division, they’ve been unable to keep up with a standout Texas Rangers side this season and find themselves 5 games behind going into Tuesday night’s game at St. Louis. Unfortunately, in a matchup that included 6th inning home runs from Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, the Cardinals 4-2 victory left the side 42-36 for the season. Right-handed pitcher Cristian Javier will lead the charge into Wednesday's game two, coming in with a 7-1 record with 15 games started, of which 8 have been quality starts this season. His ERA has solidified itself at 3.25 with an impressive K/9 rate of 8.3 and WHIP of 1.12 while on the road there is slightly more statistical presence. Javier has managed to win three of his seven starts with a WHIP of 1.02 and K/9 rate of 9.2. His last outing against the Mets while limited, saw him allow four hits and four runs while walking five and forcing just one strikeout. The Astros have currently been ranked 15th thrown-off by broader trends this season. Having scored an average of 4.48 points per game which ranks them 5th, their team defense has been what's let them down in comparison to their peers, allowing 3.96 points per game which is good enough to only achieve 23rd on the power rankings. However, it should also be noted that they will take the field without DH/OF Yordan Alvarez who is currently out with an injury.
The St. Louis Cardinals have gone from penthouse to the outhouse in the NL Central in the span of one season, going from first place to dead last. Last year the team earned the division title and is currently within striking distance of the division’s top spot with a little over half the season left. On Tuesday night in the series opener with Houston, the Cardinals got another strong start from Jordan Montgomery and took a 4-2 win over the slumping Astros, as Montgomery went 6.2 innings allowing only one earned run to improve to 5-7 on the season. In game two, the Cardinals will turn to veteran righty Miles Mikolas, who is 4-5 on the season in 16 games, including six quality starts. His ERA stands at 4.23, he has a career-low K/9 rate of 6.3 and a WHIP of 1.36, which rises to 4.97 at home and his K/9 rate increasing to 7.6. Paul Goldschmidt is the first major leaguer to play regular season games in five different countries including the United States, Australia, Mexico, Canada and England, being part of the international series. Currently, the Cardinals have a power ranking of 26 and are #12 for offense (scoring an average of 4.57 per game), #24 for defense (giving up an average of 4.80 points per game) and 77-85 overall. Houston went 1-2 in their last 3 matchups against St. Louis and Ryan Helsley will be out for this game due to an injury. With the win against the Astros and all teams within striking distance in the NL Central, the St. Louis Cardinals are looking to regain a foothold in the race for the division title and move back up in the rankings.
