![\"Aug](\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-1200,fo-auto\/29499079.jpg\")
Aug 2, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore (32) throws a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\nThe St. Louis Cardinals enjoyed a day of rest on Thursday. They probably are going to need it.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n The Cardinals will begin an 11-game road trip on Friday afternoon when they play the opener of a three-game series against the rival Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n St. Louis plays 17 of its final 41 games against National League Central opponents. The Cardinals and Cubs have split their first 10 meetings this season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n St. Louis recorded its third straight series victory with a 7-1 shellacking of the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n “So, what I love about a series like this is, you were playing against a team that’s built to make a deep run into the playoffs — and we played like one, too,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Alec Burleson flexed his muscles in the three-game set, driving in three runs in the finale to finish 5-for-10 with two doubles and six RBIs in the series.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Another highlight for St. Louis on Wednesday was rookie Cesar Prieto leading off the fifth inning with a single, ending an 0-for-27 drought to start his season.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n “He needed that,” Marmol said. “You can tell by the reaction of the dugout, it was good for everybody. I’m glad he got that out of the way.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n The Cubs head home after a disappointing 7-0 setback to the Washington Nationals on Thursday. Chicago mustered just one hit — Michael Busch’s bloop single with two outs in the seventh inning — while taking just its second loss in 10 games.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n The Cubs will try their luck on Friday afternoon against St. Louis left-hander Matthew Liberatore (5-9, 5.15 ERA), who will look to bounce back from another rough outing.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Liberatore fell to 0-3 in his past four starts after allowing five runs on nine hits in five innings during an 8-6 home loss to the Colorado Rockies on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Liberatore, 26, is 2-3 with a 3.76 ERA in 13 career appearances (seven starts) vs. the Cubs.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n He has faced Chicago three times this season, with each start getting progressively worse.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n He scattered three hits over 5 1\/3 scoreless innings in a 5-1 home win on May 31 before giving up four runs, three earned, in five-plus innings of a 6-4 loss at Chicago on July 5. Three weeks later, he took another loss against the Cubs, giving up eight hits and three runs over 3 2\/3 innings in a 7-3 setback on July 27.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Chicago right-hander Clay Holmes (4-5, 2.86 ERA) will supply the opposition on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Holmes struggled in his debut with the Cubs on Saturday, permitting four runs on six hits in four innings during a 6-3 loss to the Royals in Kansas City. He was making his return to a major league mound after a lengthy recovery process from a fractured fibula, an injury sustained on May 15 while he was pitching for the New York Mets.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n “It took a lot of work to get back to this point, and it definitely felt good to just be back in the big-league game — obviously, that’s not the full goal,” said Holmes, who was acquired by Chicago from New York in an Aug. 3 trade. “You want to be back and helping this team win games, and I just wasn’t quite sharp enough (against the Royals), but it was a good step.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n “It’s rewarding to be able to come back, and I’m really close to being myself.”<\/p>\n<\/section>\n Holmes won his lone meeting with the Cardinals this season, yielding two runs on four hits in 5 2\/3 innings in his first start of the season, a 4-2 Mets road win on March 30. In his career, Holmes is 2-2 with one save and a 5.28 ERA in 14 games (three starts) vs. St. Louis.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n <\/p>\n –Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aug 2, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Matthew Liberatore (32) throws a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images The St. Louis Cardinals enjoyed a day of rest on Thursday. They probably are going to need it. The Cardinals will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[4238,4237,1180,4239,364,2048,1117],"class_list":["post-2243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-11game","tag-cardinals","tag-crucial","tag-cubs","tag-games","tag-open","tag-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}