St. Louis Cardinals at Philadelphia Phillies

St. Louis and Philadelphia keep running into each other this month, and Sunday's matinee at Citizens Bank Park is another shot for two clubs still scrapping for playoff positioning down the stretch.

Sunday's ball goes to Cristopher Sánchez, who's turned into one of the more reliable arms in the league this season and draws a Cardinals lineup that's been anything but automatic against him. St. Louis hasn't confirmed a starter for this one, and with the rotation picture in flux, that's worth watching as the week plays out.

The bigger issue for St. Louis is what's behind whoever takes the ball. Andre Pallante just landed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, thinning out a staff that was already leaning hard on Hunter Dobbins, who's been logging length and racking up strikeouts in his recent turns. Philadelphia's rotation, by contrast, has stayed mostly intact even as the roster has taken hits elsewhere — outfielders Johan Rojas and Adolis Garcia are both out for extended surgery recoveries, and Felix Reyes got optioned out entirely.

Whatever the market makes of it, the roster shapes tell their own story: Philadelphia's found ways to win with a beat-up bullpen and outfield, while St. Louis is trying to keep pace at 66-64 with a pitching staff that keeps losing pieces.

These two have already squared off once this week, with Philadelphia taking the opener, and they meet again Saturday before this Sunday game — so the head-to-head picture is still being written. St. Louis is coming off a four-game set with Cincinnati that went back and forth, a reminder that this club can beat anyone on a given day but hasn't strung together the kind of run Philadelphia's been on.

The injury sheets on both sides are worth a look too. St. Louis is already down two bullpen and infield pieces for the season in Ramon Urias and Max Rajcic, and now Pallante's absence pushes even more innings onto a taxed staff. Philadelphia's list reads longer at a glance — Tanner Banks, Caleb Kilian and Brad Keller are all out of the bullpen mix — but the Phillies have had the depth to paper over it so far.

Sánchez himself is a good example of why the surface numbers don't tell the whole story. He struggled through July with a bloated ERA before turning it around in August, and his last time out against Miami was a clean six innings with just one run allowed. The Cardinals will need to make him work early if they want to change the shape of this series before it's over.

Sources