At home, the 2025 Cardinals have exceeded expectations. After the just-ended 4-2 homestand vs. the Phillies and Astros, the Redbirds are 8-4 at Busch and one of baseball's best offensive teams when playing in St. Louis.
Though the sample sizes are still small, St. Louis went 1-5 at Boston and Pittsburgh in its first and only road trip of the season. Those teams are both at or below .500 entering Thursday.
The Cardinals travel to face the Mets at 6:10 p.m. (St. Louis time) on Thursday in the first of a four-game series in Queens.
A big culprit for the Redbirds' road woes: the bats haven't traveled. Thursday begins a stretch in which 11 of 14 games are away from Busch.
Among Cardinals qualified hitters, only one, Brendan Donovan, has a road on-base plus slugging percentage better than the MLB average.
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Lars Nootbaar (1.146 OPS at home, .389 on the road), Nolan Arenado (.969 at home, .581 on the road) and Jordan Walker (.800 at home, .451 on the road) have the biggest dropoffs from home to road.
The Mets, with an MLB-best 2.38 ERA, will make it difficult for St. Louis to turn those struggles around.
Right-hander Griffin Canning (1-1, 4.20) starts Thursday for New York. He opposes Cardinals righty Andre Pallante (2-0, 2.20) in a duel of pitchers toward the top of the groundball rate leaderboard.
The 11-7 Mets have gotten here mostly with pitching. Their team OPS (.673) ranks in the bottom third of baseball. They've scored three or fewer runs in 11 of their 18 games. The Cardinals have only done so in four games.
The Cardinals, at 9-9, enter the day having played the fewest road games of any National League Central team.
Historically, the Cardinals have been solid at New York's Citi Field, having won four of their last five games and taking the season series in four of the past five seasons they played in New York.
Lineups
CARDINALS
1. Lars Nootbaar, LF
2. Willson Contreras, 1B
3. Brendan Donovan, SS
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Alec Burleson, DH
6. Jordan Walker, RF
7. Nolan Gorman, 2B
8. Pedro Pagés, C
9. Victor Scott II, CF
P: Andre Pallante, RHP
METS
1. Francisco Lindor, SS
2. Juan Soto, RF
3. Pete Alonso, 1B
4. Mark Vientos, 3B
5. Brandon Nimmo, LF
6. Starling Marte, DH
7. Luis Torrens, C
8. Brett Baty, 2B
9. Tyrone Taylor, CF
P: Griffin Canning, RHP
Injury report
Masyn Winn, SS (back spasms):Â Headed to join Class AAA Memphis on Friday to begin a rehab assignment. He will miss the New York trip but could rejoin the team in Atlanta and be reactivated as soon as Tuesday. Updated April 17
Ivan Herrera, C (bone bruise):Â Cleared to begin full baseball activities this weekend and see how comfortable he is, and that will determine how quickly he advances. Updated April 17
Zack Thompson, LHP (lat strain): Remained in Jupiter, Florida, to begin a throwing program after a month of limited activity and no throwing. Thompson went through multiple checkups and scans to monitor the healing of a tear in his lat on the left side, and they did not show any setback to delayed Thompson's scheduled move to the injured list. On April 7, Thompson was transferred to the 60-day IL. Updated April 7
