Game Preview 4/26: Cardinals vs. Brewers

Game one went well. Let’s hope game two is the same.

The Cardinals finally won a one-run game. It took them forever, and they still have to cross that hurdle in a road game, which is more of their issue than playing at Busch Stadium, but finally winning your first one-run game still has to feel like a sigh of relief. Today they are trying to guarantee a winning series with a pretty good favorable pitching matchup for the Cards. Sonny Gray at home against Quinn Priester, who has pitched less than 5 innings per start so far with a great ERA. The other stats are less impressive. We’ll see if the Cardinals can hit a guy with a 18.6 K%.

Unfortunately, former general manager Walt Jocketty has died at the age of 74. Which surprised me. I had always assumed he was older than that. When he was fired from the Cardinals almost 20 years ago, he was in his mid-50s. Would never have guessed that. Here’s to the man who brought the Cardinals their 10th World Series winner.

How to watch: Fanduel Sports Midwest, Matrix Midwest

How to listen: KMOX 1120AM/104.1 FM, 880 WIJR (Spanish Broadcast)

First Pitch: 1:15 PM

Matchup

Quinn Priester (1.93 ERA/4.31 FIP/4.29 xFIP)

vs.

Sonny Gray (3.41 ERA/3.89 FIP/3.25 xFIP)

Player to Watch

STL – Thomas Saggese, finally getting a start of his own today, is playing 2B. He has gotten off to a fantastic start with the Cardinals, hitting for a 173 wRC+ in his 36 PAs. Granted, it has come with a .500 BABIP, so you at some point, he’ll probably need to walk or strike out less. But that doesn’t need to happen THIS game. So let’s hope Tommy has a great game.

MIL – Jackson Chourio, who was in a bit of a slump when he headed to Busch. From April 13th to before yesterday’s game, Chourio had a 12 wRC+. Yesterday of course he got two hits, including a double. Weird quirk of Chourio’s that could hold him back: he’s not a fan of walking. He had a below average walk rate last year, and it’s just 1.7% this year. His updated ZiPS is a 5.9 BB% and kind of hard to enter superstar status with that. But he’s 21-years-old and will probably start walking at some point.