Kyle Leahy starts for St. Louis as Cardinals host Cubs in Saturday night Fox broadcast

What happened

Kyle Leahy is listed as the probable starter for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night at Busch Stadium, per Yahoo Sports. Ben Brown gets the ball for Chicago. First pitch is scheduled for 6:15 p.m., with the game airing nationally on Fox.

The matchup follows what Yahoo Sports described as a thrilling Friday night Cardinals victory at Busch Stadium — one that featured a healthy dose of St. Louis home runs — making Saturday the second game of this weekend's Cardinals-Cubs series.

Why it matters

A Cardinals-Cubs game on a Saturday night national broadcast is one of baseball's more reliable rituals, the kind of scheduling that exists whether both clubs are in a pennant race or, as is the case this weekend, decidedly not. The Fox slot guarantees a wide audience regardless of the standings, and Busch Stadium provides the backdrop that the sport's marketing department has been leaning on for roughly a century.

For St. Louis, the probable start is a meaningful operational data point. Leahy, wearing No. 62 per a Getty Images photo from a May 4 outing against the Milwaukee Brewers cited by Yahoo Sports, is the club's answer to the Saturday evening question. How he fares against a Cubs lineup in a nationally televised game will carry weight for how the Cardinals think about their rotation going forward.

Brown, meanwhile, takes the assignment for Chicago — Yahoo Sports framed it as the Cubs asking him to "take one for the team," which is the kind of editorial aside that tells you something about how the Cubs' pitching situation is being perceived from the outside, even if the specifics of that perception aren't elaborated upon in the report.

Where the club stands

The Cardinals carry a 77-85 record into Saturday, good for fourth place in the NL Central and 26 games back in the division. The Wild Card picture offers no more comfort: St. Louis ranks seventh in Wild Card positioning, sitting 11.0 games relative to the cut line. The club has dropped four straight entering this game and has been eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race.

None of that changes the fact that a Fox national broadcast on a Saturday night in a rivalry series is its own kind of occasion. The Cardinals are playing out the schedule, but they are doing so in front of a national audience this weekend, which is either a consolation or an additional pressure depending on your disposition.

Is this a must-win situation?

With elimination from both races already on the books, the traditional "must-win" framing doesn't apply in a mathematical sense. What Saturday does offer is a chance to take a series against a division rival on national television, a day after the club already took the opener. The competitive stakes within the series are real even when the postseason stakes are not.

A four-game losing streak entering Friday meant the Cardinals were already playing against recent form when they took the opener. Saturday is an opportunity to build on that, in front of an audience that extends well beyond Busch Stadium.

What's next for the Cardinals after this series?

The Cubs series concludes Sunday, May 31, when Matthew Liberatore is listed as the probable starter for St. Louis against Jordan Wicks for Chicago. The Cardinals then pivot to a Monday home game against the Texas Rangers, with Michael McGreevy projected to start opposite Jacob deGrom on June 1.

That Monday matchup carries its own narrative weight — deGrom on the mound at Busch Stadium is the kind of thing that draws attention regardless of where either club sits in the standings. But that's a story for another day. Saturday belongs to Leahy and Brown.

What we don't know yet

The Yahoo Sports report does not include lineup details beyond the starting pitchers, so the full batting orders for either club remain unconfirmed ahead of first pitch. The report also does not elaborate on Brown's specific circumstances beyond the framing that the Cubs are asking him to "take one for the team," leaving the nature of that characterization — whether it reflects a workload concern, a roster situation, or simply editorial color — unspecified.

Whether Friday's home run-fueled victory carries any momentum into Saturday is the kind of question that baseball people will answer with a shrug and a reminder that the lineup resets every night. The Cardinals had dropped four straight entering this weekend, which means Friday was already a departure from recent form. Whether Saturday extends that or reverts to it is, as always, the whole point of playing the game.

What to watch

Leahy's command and pitch mix against a Cubs lineup will be the primary on-field thread to follow. For Chicago, Brown's ability to navigate a Busch Stadium crowd that came away from Friday night with some energy will be the corresponding question. The national Fox broadcast means a larger audience will be watching both answers arrive in real time, starting at 6:15 p.m.

The Sunday and Monday probables are already in view, so how the rotation looks coming out of this weekend — and whether any of those assignments shift — is worth tracking as the Cardinals work through a stretch that takes them from a division rival to an American League opponent without much pause. A club sitting 11.0 games outside the Wild Card cut line is not playing for October, but it is still playing baseball, and on Saturday night, it is doing so on Fox.