The St. Louis Cardinals will return from an eight-day pandemic break to host the division-leading Chicago Cubs on Friday.
A COVID-19 outbreak within their roster forced the Cardinals to postpone a series at Milwaukee and home-and-home series against the Detroit Tigers.
Meanwhile, the Cubs won six straight to take control of the NL Central race. However, they fell flat Thursday night during a 13-2 road loss to the Kansas City Royals to end their winning streak.
The Cardinals will be without players who tested positive for the coronavirus, including shortstop Paul DeJong and catcher Yadier Molina.
Kwang Hyun Kim will move from the closer's role into the rotation to replace Carlos Martinez, who is on the injured list for an undisclosed reason. Right-hander Alex Reyes and lefty Genesis Cabrera joined the active roster to fortify the bullpen, which will fill the closing role by committee.
Infielder Brad Miller came off the injured list to help offset the loss of DeJong. Miller will share third base and designated hitter duty with Matt Carpenter and also back up Tommy Edman at shortstop. Matt Wieters will do the bulk of the catching in Molina's absence.
The Cardinals will start right-hander Daniel Ponce de Leon (0-1, 6.75 ERA) Friday at Busch Stadium after deciding that Jack Flaherty needed more time to rebuild arm strength. Ponce de Leon has pitched one shutout inning against the Cubs during his career.
Flaherty hasn't pitched since July 24 in a 5-4, season-opening victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. While the team was quarantined in its Milwaukee hotel, Flaherty and Co. tried to prevent rust by throwing into mattresses and pillows.
The Cubs will counter with left-hander Jon Lester (0-1, 0.82). He held the Pirates to one run on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts over six innings in a 2-1 victory Sunday.
Lester was 1-1 with a 7.36 ERA in two starts against the Cardinals last season. In his career, he is 8-6 with a 3.26 ERA in 20 starts against St. Louis.
Like the Cardinals, the Cubs hope to find strength in numbers for their late-inning relief needs.
