Paul DeJong and Michael Wacha say “Hey”.
It is another Weird Scheduling Moment; the St. Louis Cardinals are in Kansas City to take on the Royals this weekend for [squints at computer] two games. So, you know, the standard Friday-Saturday series with no game on Sunday.
I am not prepared enough to fully express how much I dislike no baseball on Sunday, but note it here, friends, I am quite displeased.
ANYWAY now to discuss the stupid two-game series on a Friday and Saturday. The Cardinals in their previous series against the Royals lost both games of a doubleheader allowing 14 runs while scoring 9. They will get another crack at old friend Michael Wacha on Saturday. In their first meeting, Wacha went 5 innings giving up 3 earned runs with 3 strikeouts. He has thrown 6 different pitches this season, but he is still Michael Wacha so the Cardinals can expect a heavy dose of that nasty changeup. In 2023 Wacha made a switch to start throwing it even more often than his four seamer, which makes sense as it is by far a much better pitch per Baseball Savant. He also throws a sinker, cutter, slider, and a curveball.
On Friday night the Cardinals will face Michael Lorenzen. It will be a Michael heavy series and a changeup heavy series as the best pitch for Lorenzen, like Wacha, is his changeup. He throws it around 20% of the time, the third most used of his pitches after his four seamer and sinker. He also throws a cutter and slider and occasionally will mix in a curveball and sweeper. In 107 innings this season Lorenzen has a 3.69 ERA with a 5.04 FIP and an 18.1% strikeout rate with an 11.3% walk rate — only 5 of those innings have been with the Royals so far though.
On offense the Royals rank just above the Cardinals in wRC+ at 16th in the league with a 98. Unlike the Cardinals, the Royals have a Bobby Witt Jr. as their top hitter. He leads the Royals with a 171 wRC+, on top of being one of the best defensive shortstops in the league. He leads all of Major League Baseball in fWAR at 8.1. He also leads the Royals in homers at 22, followed by stalwart catcher-now first baseman Salvador Perez with 20.
I think the Royals are a little bit better of a team than the Cardinals this season. Their offense as whole is a little weaker, but the top of it has been stronger and the pitching and defense look better as well. The Cardinals lucked out in facing the bottom of the rotation, but I think the Cardinals lineup might have trouble with these changeups. In a two-game series, anything can happen — hopefully the Cardinals can put together two good games to take the series!
Matchups:
Friday, August 9 at 7:10pm CT: Miles Mikolas vs. Michael Lorenzen
Saturday, August 10 at 6:10 pm CT: Andre Pallante vs. Michael Wacha