The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are playing on the MLB baseball schedule on Thursday afternoon and the matchup starts at 1:45 pm ET at Busch Stadium and the NL central division matchup will be streaming online from MLB.com and has the Cards looking to get back on track this season.
The matchup for the teams has Michael Wacha taking on Jason Hammel and the game is an important one for the Cardinals as they try and close the gap with the Brewers in the division. Wacha last won a game against the Cubs at Busch Stadium and now he will have another chance after going 0-3 in his last five starts and the Cardinals come into the game at 20-20 and they want to go up to over .500 and they come into things after the matchup was postponed against the Cubs the day before.
Kolten Wong is back with the Cardinals after some hot hitting and they could use that now with some players off to slow starts and the offense overall has been lacking. The Cardinals are usually one of the best teams on offense in the league and the hitting has not even there yet and they are looking like they are missing the bat of Carlos Beltran a bit and while he has not been great with the Yankees, it's still a big bat to lose in the lineup. The team is 25th in runs this season and they are 21st in batting average and 16th ion on base while they are also 28th in slugging and that has been tough in the early goings.
The pitching has been much better than the hitting for the Cardinals and that is why they are still in the mix in the division and they come in ranked 10th in ERA and they are also in the top 10 in WHIP and BAA against and those are good numbers to have on their side and the rotation has been good, as they are ranked 11th in quality starts. The Cards are a team with a ton of young pitching and they may look to move some of that to try and acquire some offense and names like Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller could be options to go for the Cards.
The Cubs are struggling hard again this season and while they have young talent like Mike Olt and many other players, they are still years away and Theo Epstein is trying to build a winner. The team is ranked 24th in runs and 25th in batting and they are coming in before a series with the Brewers. The team will have their best started in Jeff Samardzija on the mound on Friday and that will be a tough game, as the Brewers are tossing Kyle Lohse for the matchup and he has been great with a 4-1 record for the NL central leaders.
