The St. Louis Cardinals will need to adjust to life without their veteran leader behind the plate when they face the Minnesota Twins in the rubber match of a three-game series Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras broke a finger on his right hand when he was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning of a 6-0 loss on Saturday, the team said. Contreras will be placed on the injured list.
“We took a blow today,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said after the game. “He fractured his middle finger on his right hand, and he’ll be out. I don’t have a timeline, but he will go on the IL. …
“It’s been a tough year. He’s been beat up quite a bit. He’s fought through a lot of it.”
The 32-year-old Contreras is in his second season with the Cardinals. He is hitting .262 with 15 homers and 36 RBIs in 84 games.
The Twins will try to avoid injury as they look to win the weekend series. They won the opener 6-1 on Friday.
Twins rookie right-hander Zebby Matthews (1-1, 3.60 ERA) is set to make his third career start. He won his big-league debut against the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 13 — giving up two runs and five hits over five innings — but he’s coming off a loss against the San Diego Padres on Monday in his second outing.
Matthews surrendered five runs (two earned) and four hits over five innings in that game. He has never pitched against the Cardinals.
In five innings against San Diego, Matthews allowed five runs (two earned) on four hits. He walked two and struck out one in the 5-3 loss.
The Cardinals will counter on Sunday with right-hander Erick Fedde (8-7, 3.39 ERA), who is slated to make his 26th start of the season and his fifth since joining St. Louis via trade from the Chicago White Sox.
Fedde is 1-3 with a 4.98 ERA in his first four starts with the Cardinals. He is looking to bounce back from consecutive losses, including in his most recent outing against the Milwaukee Brewers when he gave up two runs on six hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings of the 3-2 game on Tuesday.
In two career starts against the Twins, both of which came this season as a member of the White Sox, Fedde is 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA. He has allowed one run on seven hits in 11 innings.
Twins outfielder Trevor Larnach will look to stay hot at the plate after notching two homers and four RBIs in Saturday’s 6-0 win. The performance marked Larnach’s first multi-homer game of his career.
“He’s swinging the bat good,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He hit those balls really well (Saturday). All the runs are important, but to break through with the big swing and drive some runs in early in the game for us, that’s a big deal. Those are sometimes the biggest swings of the entire game.
“He’s had good swings all year long. He’s gone through periods of time where, personally, I don’t think he’s been too fortunate with the way he’s swung the bat. He’s been pretty consistent with his approach. He knows what he’s trying to do. And he’s a big, strong guy.
“When he puts a pleasant swing on the ball, it goes out of the ballpark. He can do that.”
The Cardinals are expected to promote catcher Ivan Herrera from Triple-A Memphis to fill the void left by Contreras’ injury. Herrera, 24, is hitting .279 with three home runs and 19 RBIs in 54 games in the majors this season.
–Field Level Media
