Brady Singer vs. Kyle Leahy: Reds and Cardinals open a Busch Stadium series Friday

The Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals open a three-game series at Busch Stadium on Friday, with Brady Singer scheduled to face Kyle Leahy in the opener, per Yahoo Sports.

What happened

The two clubs are no strangers to each other after a recent series that, per Yahoo Sports, turned into something of a meteorological adventure. A Friday game between Cincinnati and St. Louis was postponed outright, a Saturday doubleheader was arranged to compensate, and then Sunday's game was pushed to a later point on the calendar. The result is that one game from that series still sits unplayed, waiting for a slot that has yet to materialize.

Now the teams are back at it, this time in St. Louis, with a full three-game slate scheduled across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Busch Stadium.

Why it matters

Weather postponements have a way of quietly reshaping a pitching staff's rhythm — doubleheaders compress rotations, bullpens absorb innings that were never budgeted, and the makeup game eventually lands on a date that nobody planned around. Per Yahoo Sports, Cincinnati's pitching staff has been under considerable strain in recent weeks, cycling through arms in ways that suggest the doubleheader and its aftermath did not arrive at a convenient moment.

The Reds also come into this series having dropped four of their last six games at home, per Yahoo Sports, in a homestand that featured the Atlanta Braves and Kansas City Royals. An off-day on Thursday offered at least a brief pause before the road trip began. Whether that rest translates into anything meaningful for a staff described as stretched is, for now, an open question.

Is there still a game owed between these teams?

Per Yahoo Sports, yes. The Sunday game from the previous series was postponed and pushed to later in the season, meaning the two clubs will need to find a date to fit it in before the schedule closes. When that makeup is slotted, and what it asks of either pitching staff at that point, remains unresolved.

The numbers

The Cardinals carry a 77-85 record into this series, sitting 4th in the NL Central, 26 games back in the division. St. Louis has also been eliminated from the Wild Card race, ranking 7th in that chase at 11.0 relative to the cut line. The club arrives on a four-game losing streak.

A .475 winning percentage with both the division and Wild Card paths closed is the kind of number that shifts the conversation away from the standings column and toward whatever else a club is trying to learn between now and the final out of the regular season. Three home games against a division opponent is not nothing, even when the postseason math has already been done.

Where the club stands

With elimination from both the division race and the Wild Card race already on the books, the Cardinals are playing out the schedule in a posture that is familiar to anyone who has watched a late-season team in the NL Central. The upcoming series against Cincinnati offers three home games at Busch Stadium, which is about as favorable a setting as the remaining schedule provides.

Friday's probable matchup is Kyle Leahy against Brady Singer. Saturday is scheduled to feature Matthew Liberatore against Nick Lodolo. Sunday closes the series with Michael McGreevy opposing Rhett Lowder, per Yahoo Sports.

The four-game losing streak heading into Friday means St. Louis has not exactly been building momentum, but a home series against a Cincinnati club that has its own recent struggles — four losses in six games on their last homestand, per Yahoo Sports — at least offers a reasonable opportunity to interrupt that slide.

What we don't know yet

Yahoo Sports notes that Cincinnati's pitching staff has been under stress, but the specific contours of that situation — which arms are available, who is stretched, what the bullpen looks like heading into Friday — are not detailed in the available reporting. The staff strain is characterized as ongoing, but the particulars remain unaddressed.

Whether the previously postponed Sunday game has been formally rescheduled, and where it lands on the calendar, is also unresolved. Makeup games have a way of surfacing at inopportune moments, and neither club has had to confront the logistics of that one yet.

The Cardinals' own roster construction heading into this series, beyond the probable starters listed, is not addressed in the available reporting.

What to watch

Singer and Leahy in the Friday opener is the natural focal point for the series. Beyond the pitching matchup itself, the condition of Cincinnati's staff over the course of three games will be worth monitoring, given the strain Yahoo Sports describes. A bullpen that has been cycling through arms does not necessarily get three days of rest to sort itself out — road trips have their own demands.

For St. Louis, a home series against a division opponent — even one playing out the string alongside them — is the kind of stretch where the standings may be settled but the individual storylines are not. Leahy, Liberatore, and McGreevy each get a turn in front of a home crowd, and the Cardinals' offense will have three chances to interrupt a four-game skid.

The makeup game from the previous series also remains somewhere on the horizon. When it surfaces, it will arrive with its own set of scheduling complications that neither club has had to address yet — the kind of thing that looks minor in June and feels considerably less minor whenever it actually shows up.