(Busch Stadium) After arriving yesterday, the St. Louis Cardinals officially announced that Luke Weaver has been recalled and will start tonight’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mike Mayers was optioned back to Memphis (AAA).
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This will be the third time this season Weaver pitches for the Cardinals, but the other two have been relief appearances.
“Nothing really changes,” said Weaver yesterday. “It’s a little easier because starting has been more my forte. Going into those routines kind of goes right back into what I’ve been doing. Nothing changes and ready to go.”
“Once I get on the mound, it all comes back to being the exact same. Just the pregame, leading up to things–starters just have a different way they go about things.”
As for the difference in the Luke Weaver who made his debut in August of last year and now?
“Experience,” he answered. “Just being able to get up here and perform. The more I get out there, the more I feel comfortable and acclimated. Just getting those reps–just like any type of hitter or pitcher. The more you can do something, the better you’re going to get at it so that’s what I’m hoping for.”
“I’m anxious to see today,” said Mike Matheny when posed the same question. “I think there’s some guys that don’t give this league enough credit, I think there’s some guys who give it too much. I think Luke has gotten away at times from his aggressiveness that we’ve seen just from his numbers and reports of his starts at the lower levels where he’s trusting his stuff and here he starts picking too much and trying to make perfect pitches when he doesn’t necessarily have to.
“Make quality pitches, but not perfect pitches. It’s run him into deep counts, which has run him into hitter’s counts, which has turned it into more of the plate than what he had done than if it had been two pitches previous. Those are lessons that you can maybe only learn over time, but he knows. I’m anxious to watch he and Carson work together. Carson knows what he was doing while he was having success in Memphis and okay, that needs to look the same here. Trust the fact that if you do that well, you’re going to increase your chances of success here.”
Weaver was 9-1 this season at Memphis with a 1.91 ERA in 13 starts. He struck out 69 batters with 14 walks.
MEMPHIS MASHERS
–While he doesn’t have quite the same offensive clout as Harrison Bader, Paul DeJong, Carson Kelly, and Luke Voit at the plate, Weaver didn’t feel that the group’s moniker of the “Memphis Mashers” was exclusive to pitchers.
“Pitchers hit too,” offered Weaver. “We’ve had some guys swinging the bat well, I’ve been in a little slump of late but I started the season off pretty well so I think we fit into that on a hitting perspective–nah, we don’t have a name for our squad. We just go out there and whatever people name us, they name us. We just try to get the ‘W’.”
GYORKO OFF DAY
–Matheny shared that Jedd Gyorko not being in the lineup was an opportunity to provide some additional rest for the infielder and also a chance to get some playing time for Greg Garcia.
Gyorko is hitless in his last 9 at-bats and Garcia has a pair of hits in his last four plate appearances. This will be the 30th start of the season for Garcia.
Tonight's lineup…#STLCards pic.twitter.com/eaXeYMAAam
— Brian Stull (@StullySTL) July 27, 2017
photo credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
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