The St. Louis Cardinals look to right the ship after a tough stretch on the road. The Cardinals (4-5, 3rd in NL Central) finish their nine-game road trip against the Pittsburgh Pirates (3-7, 5th in NL Central) with a three-game series stretching from Monday through Wednesday.

While the Cardinals offense has shouldered the load thus far in the season, it is time for the St. Louis pitching to pick up their performance. A strong first time through the rotation has been quickly forgotten after a miserable weekend series in Boston that led to the team’s first time being swept in the 2025 season. The Pirates dropped two games against the Yankees and their pitching also struggled during the series but not to the same extent as the Cardinals’ starters did.

The first game presents a decent opportunity for the Cardinals’ offense to set a new MLB record by recording 10 hits in every game this season and will do so against righty Carmen Mlodzinski (0-1, 9.82 ERA). Mlodzinski allowed nine runners to reach base over his 3.2 inning start in Tampa and gave up four runs in his first outing of the year. The Cardinals will counter with lefty Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 4.50 ERA) who notched a quality start in his first start this season.

Game two sees each team’s number one starter take the hill with Sonny Gray (1-0, 5.73 ERA) taking on phenom Paul Skenes (1-0, 1.46 ERA) on Tuesday. Gray will look to keep the ball in the ballpark after surrendering homers in each of his starts this year. The offense will have a tough task against Skenes, who has only allowed eight baserunners and struck out 13 over his first 12.1 innings of the 2025 campaign.

In game three, Erick Fedde (1-1, 7.00 ERA) will look to move past a horrid start in Boston after he was hit hard and tagged for six runs over three innings of work. Fedde will be opposed by Mitch Keller (1-1, 7.45 ERA) who, like Fedde, tallied a quality start in his first appearance but was knocked around for seven runs in his second start.

NOTES:

• Yahel Pozo will be the backup catcher for the time being with Pedro Pages expected to move into the starting catcher role. Willson Contreras is not expected to catch at all this season, outside of an emergency.
• Contreras and Masyn Winn each busted out of their cold streak from the beginning of the year. Contreras knocked three hits including a double and Winn has had two hits in each of his last four games.
• Lars Nootbaar is third in the league with 10 runs scored and has reached base in every game this season.
• Nolan Arenado is currently riding an MLB-best 15-game hitting streak.