St. Louis Cardinals vs San Francisco Giants Series Preview

Entering Monday night, the St. Louis Cardinals have 18 games remaining in the regular season. A third of those games will be against the San Francisco Giants with the first set of 3 being in San Francisco. Here are the pitching matchups according to MLB.com: Monday night, September 7: Michael McGreevy (RHP 6-9, 3.97 ERA, 102 SO) vs Logan Webb (RHP 8-8, 4.21 ERA, 119 SO) Tuesday night, September 8: Quinn Mathews (LHP 1-2, 4.38 ERA, 24 SO) vs Landen Roupp (RHP 8-13, 4.17 ERA, 137 SO) Wednesday, September 9: TBD vs Blade Tidwell (RHP 0-2, 4.43 ERA, 36 SO) Logan Webb is winless in his last 3 starts with the most recent a shelling he received at the hands of Pittsburgh on September 1 where he surrendered 9 hits and 9 earned runs over just 2 innings. Landen Roupp has fared better as he's 1-1 over his last 3 starts although his most recent was a no-decision on September 2 against the Pirates as he threw 5 innings of 2-hit ball allowing just 1 earned run while striking out 4 and walking 2. Blade Tidwell is winless in his past 3 starts as he was given the loss on September 3 when he tossed 5 innings against the Pirates giving up 2 earned runs on 2 hits while striking out 5 and walking 5. While the Cardinals have not announced a starter for Wednesday as of this writing, I believe that would be Matthew Liberatore's spot in the rotation. Who are the San Francisco Giants players to watch? Rafael Devers: By far the Giants most dangerous hitter as he's slammed 35 home runs with 91 RBI's and an average of .258, but he also leads the team in strikeouts with 158. Willy Adames: Adames has 21 home runs with 51 RBI's and an average of just .230. Casey Schmitt: Schmitt also has 21 home runs on the season with 55 RBI's and an average of .271. Bryce Eldridge: Eldridge is having a solid season with 15 home runs, 45 RBI's and an average of .262. The San Francisco Giants have already been eliminated from playoff contention with a miserable record of 59-85. They are 4-6 over their last 10 games. The Cardinals, by comparison, have won 6 of their last 10 games and still have a tiny 1.7% chance of grabbing the final wild card spot. St. Louis had an inspiring comeback Sunday against the Rockies, but gained no ground in the wild card as the Padres, Marlins and Diamondbacks all won their games, too. There's a lot to be optimistic about for those of us who are diehard St. Louis Cardinals fans with the strong debuts of Leo Bernal, Joshua Baez, Quinn Mathews and Connor Hjerpe over the past few weeks. If this young team wants to taste what it's like to compete in the playoffs, they're going to need to get red-hot over the final 3 weeks of the regular season and the 3 teams above them in the standings to stumble.