Cardinals at Reds, Game One - Preview and Lineups

Saying that the weekend shellacking of the Cincinnati Reds by the Pittsburgh Pirates sucked would be a mighty understatement. Waxed collectively by a score of 27-5 over three games in a series sweep, the Reds saw their bats go quiet, their starters serve up endelss meatballs, and even their usually dependable bullpen yield runs, too.

Enter the St. Louis Cardinals and Matt Carpenter, who is fresh off an NL Player of the Week Award after bashing 6 dingers, something he’s shown a particular proclivity for against Cincinnati pitching in the past. In fact, he belted a homer on July 14th against these very Reds in Luis Castillo’s final start before the All Star break, a leadoff shot in the Bottom of the 1st.

It’ll be Castillo on the mound for the Reds tonight in GABP, with hopes that the numbers he posted in his final three starts before the break - 15.2 IP, 11/2 K/BB, 3.45 ERA, just 1 dinger allowed - are more of what we can expect to see from him over the final two months of the season as compared to how he began this year.

Daniel Poncedeleon will make his big league debut for St. Louis. He’s actually after Reds draftee, too, as they selected him in the 38th round of the 2012 MLB Draft - though he did not sign.

First pitch is set for 7:10 PM ET.

Cincinnati Lineup

St. Louis Lineup