After wrapping up a series in Boston, the road trip continues to Milwaukee for a battle with the Brewers. Read below to see why this first-place series is important.

The St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers are tied for first place in the NL Central Division and they square off in a four-game series starting tonight in Milwaukee. The Cardinals took over first place when Milwaukee went on their eight-game losing streak. The Cardinals have since lost three of their last four games and Milwaukee has crept back into a tie for the top spot.

Based on the first two series between the Cardinals and the Brewers, it would be very possible that the two teams will still be tied at the end of this series. The teams have met for eight games this season already and have split the series at two games each both times. This is a great opportunity for St. Louis to extend their lead and to separate itself as the better team.

Series Preview

The two best pitchers will face off against each other in game one when Corbin Burnes and Miles Mikolas take the mound for their respective teams. Both pitchers have very similar numbers on the season and are looking to better their numbers and have a chance at the NL Cy Young award.

Mikolas is coming off a near no-hitter performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates last week. He holds a 5-4 record on the year with a 2.62 ERA in 82.1 innings pitched. Mikolas has been the ace of the Cardinals pitching staff this season and hopes to continue that role as the year progresses.

Burnes is coming off a six-inning performance against the New York Mets, a game that he won. Burnes allowed five hits and two runs in the win but his offense gave him a big cushion, scoring 10 runs in the first five innings. The righty from Milwaukee has a 4-4 record with a 2.52 ERA in 78.2 innings pitched.

Burnes has pitched once against St. Louis this season and was victorious in that start. He pitched seven innings and allowed two hits on the night. In that 8-0 win, Burnes struck out 11 St. Louis batters. Mikolas has a 1-1 record against Milwaukee this season, his last performance was in the 8-0 loss against Burnes.

As for the rest of the series, Jack Flaherty will start against Aaron Ashby on Tuesday. Adam Wainwright and Eric Lauer will pitch on Wednesday and Dakota Hudson and Jason Alexander will finish off the series on Thursday afternoon.

Trending Cardinals News

Tyler O’Neill left the game on Sunday afternoon with an apparent hamstring injury. O’Neill had doubled in the ninth inning and seemed to hobble to second base. He has most recently just come back from a shoulder injury.

This would be a big blow to the St. Louis team in O’Neill is sidelined for a while. It seemed that O’Neill had found his stride here in the Boston series, including a big home run on Saturday night. The team is hoping that he does not have to be added to the injured list and miss time before the All-Star break.

If O’Neill is added to the injured list, the front office will be faced with a very interesting decision as St. Louis reporter Jeff Jones pointed out. The Cardinals could have three options for who is called up, that being Lars Nootbaar, Paul DeJong or Alec Burleson. All are interesting options but two of them make more sense than the third.

As Jones pointed out, Nootbaar is 3-23 in his most recent stint in Memphis which is less than ideal. Burleson would need to be added to the 40-man roster which would require a lot and DeJong is coming off a bad series where he went 3-25 with seven strikeouts. The safest option and the smartest option would be to recall Nootbaar, an outfielder to replace O’Neill.

Monday’s Game Information

Location: Milwaukee, Wis – American Family Field
Time: 7:10 p.m. CT
TV: FS1
Radio: 1120 KMOX, MLB Radio App

Monday’s Game Betting Lines

Spread: Milwaukee -1.5

Money Line: Milwaukee -175

                     St. Louis +150

Over/Under: 7.5