Guardians start fresh against Cards after disappointing weekend

The Cleveland Guardians and host St. Louis Cardinals will continue the interleague-heavy start to their respective schedules, opening a three-game series Monday night.

Ten of Cleveland's first 16 games have come against National League teams. The Cardinals have met American League squads in nine of their 15 games.

Gavin Williams (1-1, 2.04 ERA) will take the mound in St. Louis with Cleveland looking to bounce back from a 13-1 loss at the Atlanta Braves on Sunday night. The Guardians still hold a share of the early-season standings lead in the American League Central.

Williams, who has recorded double-digit strikeouts in two of his past four regular-season starts dating back to 2025, is coming off a 5 2/3-inning appearance on Tuesday in no-decision against the Kansas City Royals. The lone hit and run he allowed was a solo homer by Carter Jensen, but he did walk five in an eventual 2-1 win. He did not get a decision.

"Outside of that (home run), they couldn't really get anything going," Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said, reflecting on Williams' most recent start. "He's got the stuff to miss bats. Obviously, in a perfect world, we'd love him to never walk anyone, like anybody, but Gavin's got the stuff to get out of it."

Williams, a right-hander, will make only his second career start against St. Louis on Monday, having pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball on Sept. 22, 2024. The Cardinals' 2-1 defeat was charged to the bullpen.

Despite banging out nine hits in the Sunday loss, the Guardians managed just one run on Rhys Hoskins' solo homer, breaking up a Chris Sale shutout bid in the sixth inning.

Rookie Chase DeLauter (2-for-2, double, walk) and Daniel Schneemann (3-for-4, two doubles) both logged multi-hit games. DeLauter boasts a 1.059 OPS and has reached base in nine straight games.

The Cardinals hope their six-game homestand can take a positive turn following consecutive losses to the Boston Red Sox, including 9-3 on Sunday, following a 3-2 win to open the weekend series on Friday.

Despite the defeats, Jordan Walker continued his exceptional rookie season with his third set of back-to-back homers already this season, giving him an MLB-best seven through his first 15 games. Only Mark McGwire, Scott Rolen and Albert Pujols have reached that mark in that span in St. Louis franchise history.

"You can enjoy it when it happens," Walker said of his power surge. "But the main goal is to keep it going."

St. Louis managed multiple homers in a game for the fifth time this season, as Alec Burleson also hit one in the eighth inning on Sunday against the Red Sox. However, they have allowed at least seven runs in consecutive games after Matt Svanson struggled out of the bullpen -- five earned runs in one inning on Saturday -- and starter Andre Pallante was tagged in his Sunday start.

"I just didn't think we were good enough against the starter (Brayan Bello), bottom line," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of the Sunday game. "We've executed at a much higher rate than what we did (Sunday). ... You're gonna have days like that."

Despite a solid run through three starts, St. Louis' Matthew Liberatore (0-0, 3.38) is still searching for his first decision of the season. He allowed just one run in each of his first two starts (11 total innings) before a mixed bag of an outing on Tuesday, He struck out a season-high six batters while giving up four runs on nine hits in five innings against the Washington Nationals.

Liberatore did not get the decision in the 7-6, 10-inning win for the Cardinals.

The 26-year-old left-hander is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA in three appearances (two starts) against Cleveland, earning the victory with six shutout innings during the Cardinals' 7-0 win on June 29, 2025.

--Field Level Media