Colorado Rockies podcast: 3 things to look for in the St. Louis Cardinals series

After winning the final game of the series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, the Colorado Rockies head to St. Louis to face the Cardinals in a four-game set this weekend.

The Colorado Rockies will head to St. Louis to face the Cardinals this weekend for the first time in 2019. If you’ve checked out the Cardinals some throughout the season, you know that they are in a much better spot than the Rockies at this point in the season as they have a record of 67-58 and in first place in the NL Central and right in the thick of things for the Wild Card spots as well.

Here are three things to look for in the series with the Cardinals and Rockies.

The Cardinals bullpen

By ERA, the Cardinals have the best bullpen in the National League at 3.74. Carlos Martinez, the former Cardinals starter, is now the team’s closer and he has pitched well in that role as he has a 3.86 ERA (3.37 FIP) with 14 saves.

The Cardinals also have five relievers with 48 or more appearances with an ERA of 3.59 (119 ERA+) or better in John Brebbia, Giovanny Gallegos, John Gant, Andrew Miller, and Tyler Webb.

The Cardinals bullpen, in total, has also only allowed 25 percent of inherited runners to score. For comparison, the Rockies bullpen has allowed 38 percent of inherited runners to score.

The differences between the starting pitchers

The Cardinals have a young starting pitching staff and they have pitched well this season. Two of the starters that the Rockies are slated to face are Jack Flaherty and Dakota Hudson, on Friday and Saturday.

Flaherty, 23, has pitched to a 3.45 ERA in 25 starts with a good WHIP (1.104) with a 3.6:1 stirkeout to walk ratio.

Those numbers were not that great at the beginning of the season as in his last eight starts, Flaherty has averaged more than six innings a start and he has an ERA of 0.89 (that’s not a typo). Batters are hitting .145/.221/.231 against him in that span.

Hudson, 24, has pitched to a 3.63 ERA in 26 games (25 starts). He has an ERA of 2.25 in the month of August and he has had two consecutive 6+ inning starts without allowing a run, including 6 2/3 innings in his last start against the Brewers without allowing a hit.

For the Rockies, with the injury to Jon Gray and the likely injured list stint for Kyle Freeland, they will be putting people out there who nobody thought would be in the rotation this year with the exception of German Marquez today. Peter Lambert and Chi Chi Gonzalez will likely go on Friday and Saturday but Sunday is still a TBD with the Freeland injury.