Luke Weaver takes the mound to send St. Louis Cardinals back into last place

The St. Louis Cardinals selected Luke Weaver with the 27th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, and the righty from Florida State University quickly signed for a signing bonus small enough to afford them the opportunity to sign their 34th pick - high school righty Jack Flaherty - as well.

St. Louis later flipped Weaver to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the deal that landed Paul Goldschmidt with the Cardinals, and the rest is history.

Weaver will get an opportunity today to show he’s still a plenty capable starting pitcher in the National League’s Central division, as he’ll toe the rubber for the Cincinnati Reds in Great American Ball Park with a chance to wrap-up the series in the Redlegs favor. To do so, however, he’ll need a complete reversal of form seeing as he’s yielded 23 ER in 31.2 IP so far this season (6 GS), with 9 HR allowed and an unsightly combination of 6.54 ERA, 5.87 FIP, and 1.52 WHIP.

Those numbers, for the record, somehow qualify him as a rotation lock for this beleaguered Cincinnati rotation. I digress.

The Reds offense will be tasked with getting to Miles Mikolas, the veteran righty who has been the catalyst for wins in each of his last trio of starts against some of the elder statesman franchises the game has to offer - the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs. If the Reds can muster anything akin to their 18-hit effort from Wednesday’s 10-3 victory, however, it’ll be a short afternoon for Mikolas altogether.

Wil Myers will sit for the second consecutive game, by the way.

First pitch in this matinee is set for 12:35 PM ET, so get busy clearing your afternoon schedules. To the victor goes outright posession of the coveted title of ‘4th place team in the NL Central.’

Reds Lineup

Cardinals Lineup