this st louis cardinals With 14 games under .500 after the All-Star break, organizational focus has shifted to next season
That reality will hang over the club as it resumes a three-game home series with teams. washington nationals on Friday
“Right now, I can tell you that we’re going to have personnel trades,” cardinals John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations, told Fox2 News in St. Louis. “I just don’t know if it’s going to be a household name or more people who are unlikely to be here next year. It’s easy to talk about what we might or might not do now, but we’re not going to give up easily player
“We want to get some return on value. We want to get some return on value that will help us into 2024, and that’s going to be a real focus as we go into the deal period.”
this cardinals Wins two of three road games against the Chicago White Sox heading into halftime.Before that, they had lost six of eight games, sealing their fate as trade-deadline sellers
“If there’s anything I can really point out, where I feel like we need to work hard is our defense, and that starts with me.” cardinals Third baseman Nolan Arenado told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “Just to play better defensively, we need the starters to play well. But, at the end of the day, we need to play better defense.
Arenado hit 14 homers in May and June, then posted a 1.239 OPS through his first nine games in July, leading the cardinals‘ offended.Willson Contreras is 12-for-22 with 4 walks, 4 doubles, 2 homers and 5 RBIs in his last 7 games
last month’s cardinals won two of three games Nationals when they met in washington dc
Brendan Donovan (5 for 12, home run, 3 RBIs), Dylan Carlson (3 for 8, 2 homers, 3 RBIs) and Contreras ( 4 for 13, 2 doubles, 3 RBIs) had a stellar offensive series for St. Louis, while CJ Abrams (6 for 9, doubles, home runs, threes) headed for Washington. main character.
reconstruction Nationals Coming into this series after back-to-back wins over the Texas Rangers before halftime.They’ve won four of their past five series while trying to lay the groundwork for the future
“These guys are learning and getting better,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “It’s a grind
“When they make a mistake, we try to make them understand what happened and what went wrong: ‘Here’s what we saw; this is what you need to do.’ They don’t like losing. They want to win, and they’re in Playing hard in 27 outs. That’s hard to teach.”
One area of concern is Washington’s inability to control the game. Catcher Caybert Ruiz has repelled just 14 percent of runners attempting a tackle this season, including just 6 percent of runners attempting a tackle at second base.
“He was released quickly,” Martinez told The Washington Post. “Our pitchers are often not quick enough, and that got him into trouble.”
friday, cardinals Will send right-hander Miles Mikolas (5-5, 4.23 ERA) across from Washington right-hander Trevor Williams (5-5, 4.45)
Mikolas has made seven appearances (six starts) against the team in his career Nationals They are 3-3 with a 4.05 ERA against them.Williams, a former player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, has faced cardinals 16 in 21 starts, the most of his career; he’s 5-6 with a 4.98 ERA against St. Louis
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