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The Opener: Doubleheader, Pitchers’ Duel, A’s

By Nick Deeds | June 5, 2025 at 8:34am CDT

Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:

1. Doubleheader in St. Louis:

The Royals and Cardinals saw their game yesterday postponed by rain. That missed game will be made up for today as part of a split doubleheader between the two clubs. Game 1 is scheduled to begin at 12:45pm local time, while Game 2’s first pitch is set for 6:45pm. Tickets for yesterday’s postponed game will be valid for Game 1 today, while fans who had tickets for today’s game will still have valid tickets for Game 2. MLB.com notes that the Cardinals will offer fans who had paid tickets to yesterday’s game a voucher for a future Monday-Thursday Cardinals home game. Notably, this will be the fifth doubleheader of the Cardinals’ season, as they’ve been dogged by inclement weather throughout the year. The twin bill will now serve as the starting point for a series of 28 games in 28 days, a stretch during which the Cards will have only June 16 as a scheduled day off.

2. Game 2 Pitchers’ Duel:

While Game 1 of the aforementioned doubleheader will feature rookie southpaw Noah Cameron (1.05 ERA in four starts) pitching for the Royals against Cardinals veteran Miles Mikolas (3.90 ERA in 11 starts), the main attraction will be Game 2. Cole Ragans is expected to make his return to the mound for the first time since a May 16 start (also against the Cardinals), where he suffered a groin strain that kept him on the injured list for nearly three weeks. A finalist for the AL Cy Young award last year, Ragans has a lackluster 4.53 ERA in nine starts this year despite a terrific 1.98 FIP and a strikeout rate of 37.7%. His opponent today will be breakout southpaw Matthew Liberatore, who boasts a 3.08 ERA and 2.65 FIP for the Cardinals heading into his career-high 12th start of the season.

3. A’s shaking up pitching staff?

The Athletics are currently operating with a four-man rotation, and with the club in need of a fifth starter today, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com relays that right-hander Mitch Spence is expected to take the ball for his first start of the 2025 season. It’s possible he’s being called upon to start a bullpen game, but this could also signal a role change for the righty.

Spence made 24 starts and hurled 151 1/3 innings for the A’s during their final season in Oakland. The former Rule 5 pick opened the 2025 season in the ’pen and has tossed 39 innings with a 4.38 ERA and 3.82 FIP thus far. He hasn’t thrown more than 44 pitches or topped three innings in an outing since early April, however. Are the A’s planning to stretch him out more fully? Athletics starters rank 28th in the majors with a 5.49 ERA, leading only the Marlins (5.50) and Rockies (6.55). Luis Severino (4.54) and Jeffrey Springs (4.72) are the only A’s starters with sub-5.00 ERAs on the season.

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The Opener

Read The Transcript Of Nicklaus Gaut’s Fantasy Baseball Chat
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View Comments (10)
Post a Comment

10 Comments

  1. Acoss1331

    2 months ago

    That Cardinals pitching has surprised me. I thought Mikolas was cooked but he’s been shoving this year. I’ll be honest, I did not expect the Cardinals to be this good, I thought they’d be sub 500 but no they’re proving a lot of people wrong.

    5
    Reply
    • Old York

      2 months ago

      @Acoss1331

      Yes, the Cards pitching has benefited from a strong defensive group on the field. They’ve saved about 10 runs so far this season for the pitchers. Instead of a team ERA of 3.92, they would have a 4.09 ERA.

      1
      Reply
      • Canuckleball

        2 months ago

        The Cards were 13th in the majors last season for team DRS.

        The Cards are 15th in the majors with their 10 DRS this season.

        Their pitching staff isn’t really benefiting from any additional help that they didn’t get last season. And the help they’re getting is really just league average support.

        In fact, in the NL Central, by DRS, the Cards are the worst defense.

        2
        Reply
        • Old York

          2 months ago

          @Canuckleball

          I guess you don’t know what you’re talking about.

          The team’s RA9Def shows that the defense has saved them 10 runs for the pitching staff.

          In terms of DRS, on Fangraphs, they are 6th out of 15 in the NL with 13 DRS. The worst in the NL is Philly with -35 DRS.

          For the whole league, the Cards are #12. They also have the most OAA (22) and Range (18) in the whole league.

          1
          Reply
        • Canuckleball

          2 months ago

          I was using Baseball Reference’s DRS, the stats site that is linked in all articles here.

          Also, after all your bluster, the site you prefer agrees with the only point I was trying to make: that the Cards defense as a whole is roughly league average. BR has them at 15th, FG has them at 12th.

          1
          Reply
        • Old York

          2 months ago

          12th out of 30 is league average? Which math class did you attend? I just pointed out how you were wrong and now you’re angry about pointing out facts. Go back to school…

          1
          Reply
        • King. Of. Cards

          2 months ago

          The Cardinals defense is better than league average.

          Reply
  2. Old York

    2 months ago

    Noah Cameron

    ERA: 1.05
    SIERA: 4.75
    BABIP: .153

    Miles Mikolas

    ERA: 3.90
    SIERA: 4.88
    BABIP: .279

    Both are in for some negative regression but Cameron is in for a rough landing. Those numbers seem quite unsustainable. Maybe no today, but he’s going to get hit hard and come back down to reality.

    6
    Reply
  3. LFGSD619

    2 months ago

    Any word on Michael Kelly, Jay Groome, Andrew Saalfrank and Jose Rodriguez? Their suspensions theoretically should have ended yesterday.

    1
    Reply
    • Patrick Tracey

      2 months ago

      A’s activated Michael Kelly

      1
      Reply

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