The Reds of Cincinnati have lost ground in the pursuit of the national league qualifiers while suffering from a premature weekend of three athletics games in West Sacramento, California.
The Reds (74-75) will try to find the traction on Monday evening during their visit to the Cardinals of St. Louis (73-77) during the opening of a series of three games.
Cincinnati has 2 1/2 games behind the New York Dies in the race for the last NL Wild-Card spot. The cardinals remained four games back of the dishes, which beat the Texas Rangers 5-2 on Sunday.
The Reds will open the series with the Zack Littell launcher (9-8, 3.78 ERA), which has just released Tuesday in San Diego. The right-hander held the paadres at two points on two strokes and a walk with four stick withdraws in six rounds of a 4-2 victory,
Littell withdrew 11 consecutive strikers during a section while displaying its formula to succeed.
“I thought he had worked with his quick ball, then from it comes the split,” said Reds manager Terry Francona. “And then the cutter-ish cursor, how you want to call him. But I thought he had just presented.”
The Reds have only 3-4 in the matches that Littell has started since his arrival of Tampa Bay Rays in a end of the season, but three of these losses came in an additional sleeve.
One of these defeats occurred on August 29 at home against the Cardinals. Littell worked seven rounds while granting four points (three deserved) in six strokes.
He withdrew four strikers in this match and did not work. Pedro Pages struck a two -point circuit against him and Ivan Herrera hit a solo shot.
Littell has a 0-2 file with an MPM of 6.04 in 22 1/3 rounds against the cardinals in 10 career appearances, including two departures.
The cardinals (73-77) managed a sequence of five consecutive defeats by ahead of the Brewers 3-2 Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee.
They will open this series with the left-handed Matthew Liberatore (7-12, 4.35), who will try to bounce back from one of his most difficult outings of the season.
He granted five points on six strokes, two circuits, in four rounds during a 5-3 defeat in Seattle on Tuesday.
“Three walks and two error fields,” said Liberatore. “This is really what it comes down to.”
Liberatore has a 0-1 file with an MPM of 5.63 in two starts against the Reds this season. He granted five points in 10 strokes, including three circuits and three goals on bullets in eight rounds.
But it is 1-1 with an MPM of 3.45 in 15 2/3 rounds on nine career appearances against the Reds, including seven in relief.
The cardinals found the second goal Brendan Donovan (groin strain) from the injured list in the Milwaukee series, but they lost the Masyn Winn Copped Stop to a torn menis at the end of the season at the right knee.
“I was hoping after having had three days off, it would feel much better,” Winn told St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It was really difficult to swing, really difficult to take bullets on the ground. The training staff noticed it. I was trying to hide it a little.”
Donovan and the first goal player Willson Contreras are expected to return to the alignment on Monday after taking off on Sunday. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was counteras “was quite beaten” after being touched twice by throws on Saturday.
St. Louis plans to recover the third goal Nolan Arenado from the injured list for this series. He was in rehabilitation with Double-A Springfield after recovering from shoulder pain.
– field level media
