The Cincinnati Reds has been one of the most impressive teams in baseball to start the season and they will put that on the line on Monday as they travel to St. Louis for the home opener for the Cardinals, who made it to the NLCS last season before losing to the San Francisco Giants.
The team is planning to honor team great Stan Musical with an outfield wall monument, as the Hall of Fame player passed away earlier in the year. The team will also be wearing a patch in honor of Musial and the two pitchers on Monday will be Mat Latos for the Reds, while Jaime Garcia will pitch for the Cardinals.
The Reds are coming off of a Central division title last year and are working their way back to the playoffs, but first they will have to get pact Garcia, who has been excellent at home in his career with a 20-11 record and a sub-3.00 ERA. The team will try to get things going behind him after starting 3-3 and the team has some momentum after winning two out of three games from the World Series champion Giants, including tagging Matt Cain on Sunday in a 14-3 victory that was powered by Adam Wainwright's pitching.
The Cardinals may have Davis Freese back for the game, while manager Mike Matheny said that there is a chance that he will sit. The Reds are 4-2 after staying at home for the first week and the team has some momentum after defeating the Nationals and Stephen Strasburg, wining two out of three games in the series. The reds are hot on offense, including shortstop Todd Frazier, who is the early leader in batting average and tied for RBIs.
St. Louis has been a tough place for the Reds to play over the last decade, with the teams splitting just two series over that time and Cincinnati winning just three. Garcia has been excellent in the past against the Reds, going 6-0 at home with a little over a 2.00 ERA in six chances.