Saturday, 4/16 – Cardinals vs. Reds
Time: 2:15 PM EDT
To be honest, there aren’t a lot of great games on paper this Saturday. Perhaps the most interesting game will be when the St. Louis Cardinals square off against the Cincinnati Reds. Adam Wainwright is on the hill for the Cardinals. He missed a good portion of last season due to a torn achilles.
Cincinnati will send Brandon Finnegan out to face their division rivals. In his last appearance Finnegan took a no-hitter into the 7th, but he was eventually knocked out of the game. Cincinnati is coming off being swept by the Cubs, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. They were one of the early surprises of the baseball season with a 5-1 record, but the previous series was more of what people expected. Eugenio Suarez is off to a fast start for the Reds. He’s hitting .353/.421/.706, and he’s already hit four home runs.
The Cardinals were swept by the Pirates out of the gate, but they’ve since gotten their record to 5-4. Wainwright has struggled in his first two starts back running a 6.55 ERA in 11 innings. St. Louis has gotten surprise production from 28-year-old Jeremy Hazelbaker. This has been his first opportunity in the majors and in 27 at-bats he’s hit .481/.484/1.000 to go along with a team leading three home runs.
Honorable Mentions: Matt Harvey takes the mound for the Mets against Cleveland (4:10 PM EST). The best “Story” of the 2016 season get his chance to face off against Jake Arrieta in Chicago (2:20 PM EST).
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