TBD Is Not a Plan as Cardinals Try to Answer the Cubs

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Game Day Preview: TBD Is Not a Plan as Cardinals Try to Answer the Cubs
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals will try to even their four-game series against the Chicago Cubs tonight at Busch Stadium, although several hours before first pitch the club’s official probable-pitchers page still lists its starter as “TBD.”

First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Cardinals.TV, Marquee Sports Network and TBS outside the local market, with radio coverage on KMOX and the Cardinals Radio Network. Chicago has announced veteran right-hander Colin Rea as its starter.

The reasonable assumption is that Michael McGreevy will start for St. Louis.

McGreevy is on regular rest after pitching Thursday’s makeup game against Arizona, and his MLB player page identifies tonight’s game against Chicago as his next Cardinals appearance. Several independent previews also list McGreevy as the expected starter, but the Cardinals had not officially confirmed that matchup as of publication.

That distinction matters.

This is not criticism of McGreevy. He has been one of the Cardinals’ most dependable starters and would be the logical choice tonight.

The criticism belongs with a club that has somehow reached game day against its oldest rival without publicly naming its starting pitcher.

There may be a roster move, a trade-deadline consideration or some workload calculation behind the delay. However, from the outside, this looks less like strategic flexibility and more like poor planning or poor communication.

Modern clubs are permitted to carry 13 pitchers. They employ analysts, pitching strategists, performance specialists and layers of baseball operations personnel. Yet “TBD” continues to receive more scheduled appearances than anyone should find acceptable.

That is not analytical genius.

That is making a basic part of managing a baseball team look unnecessarily complicated.

The Cardinals enter tonight at 53-53 after Chicago won Monday’s series opener 7-3. The Cubs improved to 60-46 and moved seven games ahead of St. Louis in the standings.

Monday’s loss followed a familiar and increasingly frustrating script.

The Cardinals fell behind early, spent the middle innings trying to climb back into the game and allowed Chicago to pull away late.

Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner each collected four hits and homered as the Cubs finished with 14 hits. Bregman drove in two runs, while Hoerner drove in four.

Matthew Liberatore allowed three runs on eight hits over 3⅔ innings. He surrendered runs in each of the first three innings, forcing the Cardinals to play from behind almost immediately.

José Fermín provided an early spark with a 407-foot solo home run in the second inning. Masyn Winn and Bryan Torres helped the Cardinals cut the deficit to 5-3 in the sixth, but St. Louis could not complete the comeback.

Hoerner’s two-run homer in the ninth ended any remaining hope.

The loss was the Cardinals’ eighth in 11 games since the All-Star break.

That is no longer a brief stumble.

It is a legitimate slide at the worst possible time.

The trade deadline is approaching, the Cubs are pulling away and the Cardinals remain outside the final National League Wild Card position. St. Louis entered this series 1½ games behind the final postseason spot, with several clubs occupying the narrow space between the Cardinals and October.

Tonight does not qualify as a mathematical must-win, but the Cardinals are rapidly running out of room for casual losses.

They opened the series owning a 4-2 season advantage over Chicago. Monday’s defeat reduced that edge to 4-3.

The Cardinals have already proven they can beat the Cubs. They took two of three at Busch Stadium in May and two of three at Wrigley Field earlier this month.

What they have not proven is that they can consistently play complete baseball during the second half.

Assuming McGreevy gets the assignment, the Cardinals will be giving the ball to a pitcher whose record does not accurately reflect his performance.

The right-hander is 4-8 with a 3.07 ERA, a 1.13 WHIP and 74 strikeouts over 114⅓ innings. He has completed at least six innings in many of his starts and has regularly given St. Louis an opportunity to win without requiring overpowering velocity.

McGreevy relies on command, movement, changing speeds and keeping hitters off balance. He is not going to win many radar-gun contests, but baseball games are still played on grass rather than spreadsheets and velocity charts.

His most recent outing was not his best. Arizona scored four runs against him over 6⅓ innings Thursday, but McGreevy still worked into the seventh and prevented the Cardinals from having to cover most of the game with their bullpen.

That ability has value, especially for a relief corps that has been asked to absorb too many high-leverage innings without clearly defined roles.

McGreevy must do a better job of limiting hard contact tonight than Liberatore did Monday.

The Cubs attacked early in counts and repeatedly found pitches they could drive. Bregman and Hoerner controlled the game, while Seiya Suzuki, Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya helped keep constant pressure on the Cardinals’ defense.

Chicago did not simply wait for one three-run home run.

The Cubs kept producing quality at-bats, adding baserunners and forcing St. Louis pitchers to work with traffic.

McGreevy’s strength is avoiding that kind of extended chaos. He must get ahead, produce quick outs and keep the top of the Cubs’ lineup from batting with runners already aboard.

The Cardinals will face a very different style of pitcher in Rea.

The 36-year-old right-hander enters at 7-7 with a 4.85 ERA, 81 strikeouts and a 1.42 WHIP over 105⅔ innings. He relies more on location, movement and changing speeds than pure velocity.

Rea had an excellent four-start stretch from June 28 through July 18, going 4-0 with a 1.90 ERA over 23⅔ innings. He has been less effective in his last two appearances, allowing seven earned runs over 11 innings in losses to Minnesota and Detroit.

That recent decline should give the Cardinals an opportunity, but only if they avoid helping him.

Rea is the type of veteran pitcher who can steal six innings if hitters expand the strike zone and offer at soft contact early in counts. He does not need to overpower a lineup when the lineup is willing to get itself out.

The Cardinals must make him work.

They need traffic at the top of the order, patient at-bats and damage when Rea is forced into the middle of the strike zone.

The last time Rea faced St. Louis, on Sept. 26, 2025, he threw 5⅔ scoreless innings. That history is not destiny, but it should be a reminder that a veteran pitcher with a nearly 5.00 ERA can still control a game when opposing hitters fail to make adjustments.

Jordan Walker remains the Cardinals hitter most capable of changing the game with one swing.

Walker has four home runs and 13 RBI in 23 career games against the Cubs. Chicago kept him quiet Monday, and St. Louis needs more from the middle of its order tonight.

Alec Burleson has been the club’s most consistent hitter, but the Cardinals cannot continue asking Burleson, Walker or JJ Wetherholt to carry the offense individually.

They need several hitters contributing in the same inning.

Winn had two hits Monday and helped create the sixth-inning rally. Fermín homered. Torres delivered an RBI double.

Those were positive moments, but they remained isolated moments.

The Cubs collected 14 hits because their lineup kept applying pressure. The Cardinals collected seven because their offense appeared in brief flashes and then disappeared again.

St. Louis also must play cleaner baseball.

The Cardinals made another defensive error Monday and committed a costly baserunning mistake during their attempted comeback. Against a club seven games ahead in the standings, those are not minor details.

They are the difference between extending an inning and ending one.

The bullpen will also require careful handling.

If McGreevy starts and pitches as expected, Oliver Marmol should allow him to work deep as long as he remains effective. However, there cannot be another evening of managing toward hypothetical situations rather than the game taking place.

The highest-leverage moment may arrive in the sixth or seventh inning with Bregman, Suzuki and Hoerner due to bat.

That is when the best available reliever should be used.

Saving an arm for a ninth-inning lead that never arrives accomplishes nothing.

The same principle applies to the entire game.

The Cardinals cannot manage tonight like one of 162 anonymous dates on the calendar. They are facing the Cubs, sitting at .500, sliding backward since the break and approaching a deadline that may determine whether the front office adds, subtracts or simply rearranges the furniture.

Every loss changes that conversation.

Every win keeps the opportunity for a Red October alive.

The Cardinals should not need a mystery starter, a last-minute announcement or another complicated explanation.

They need McGreevy — assuming he is indeed the pitcher — to control the game.

They need the offense to make Rea work.

They need the defense to stop giving away outs and the bullpen to be used when the game demands it.

Most of all, they need a victory.

The opponent has announced its starter.

The schedule points directly toward McGreevy.

The Cardinals still say TBD.

At some point, flexibility stops being a strategy and begins looking like indecision.

Tonight, whoever receives the baseball must help make that conversation irrelevant.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
Preserving the Past, Promoting the Present, and Projecting the Future.

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