The 16-24 St. Louis Cardinals avoided going into Anaheim with a seven-game losing streak with a comeback win on Sunday against the division-rival Brewers.
After dropping 3 of 4 in Milwaukee the Cardinals now head west to take on the Angels ( 15-26) who like the Cardinals, sit in last place as we are approximately 25% finished with the regular season. The Angels are currently tied with the Tigers for the longest active postseason drought ( 9 seasons), and it looks like that slump will continue through the 2024 season. It’s a nice reminder for Cardinal fans that even though times are tough right now, it could always be worse.
Cardinals fans are hoping that Sunday’s game is a sign of things to come for Paul Goldschmidt, who is currently in the biggest slump of his career. Going into Sunday’s game with just one hit in his last 33 at-bats, Goldschmidt collected two hits which included a home run on a two-strike count, and a single with 2 outs that tied the game in the 7th inning.
This will be the Cardinals’ first visit to Anaheim since May 10-12 of 2016 when they swept the Angels outscoring them 25-13 in the 3 games. All time the Cardinals are 4-2 in Anaheim.
Probable starting pitchers
Matthew Liberatore ( 1-1 3.54 ERA) is projected to start the game for the Cardinals tonight. This will be his second start of the season while spending most of the year in the bullpen. He is starting because Steven Matz has been on the injured list but he is not expected to go particularly deep in this game. Libertatore pitched in relief on Friday in game 2 of their series and it is expected that the plan for him is to stay in the bullpen once the rotation is healthy, so I would expect him to throw no more than 50 pitches this evening.
