If nothing else, this week’s series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays brought a bit of intrigue based solely on the fact that these teams don’t see each other too often. The two teams have only faced each other six times during the last eight years, with the COVID-19 pandemic throwing things off in 2020 when the AL East would’ve been playing the NL Central.
On top of that, the last game the Cardinals won at the Trop was back in 2014. Don’t suspend me for saying that.
Here are the lineups for the Cardinals and Rays Tuesday night:
Cardinals:
- Lars Nootbaar, LF
- Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
- Nolan Gorman, 2B
- Nolan Arenado, 3B
- Willson Contreras, C
- Alec Burleson, DH
- Jordan Walker, RF
- Dylan Carlson, CF
- Tommy Edman, SS
Miles Mikolas - SP
And the Rays:
- Yandy Diaz, 1B
- Wander Franco, SS
- Brandon Lowe, 2B
- Randy Arozarena, LF
- Isaac Paredes, 3B
- Luke Raley, DH
- Jose Siri, CF
- Josh Lowe, RF
- Christian Bethancourt, C
Zach Eflin - SP
In a fast-paced game that lasted just 2 hours and 13 minutes and that Rob Manfred would have drooled over, the Rays broke through against an uber-efficient Mikolas in the seventh, and really busted it open once he was pulled.