STL (55-57) Game 1 of 3 -- Yankee Stadium -- 6:05 PM CT NYY (63-49)
McGreevy (R) -- 3.57 ERA Monday, August 3, 2026 Schlittler (R) -- 2.04 ERA
YESTERDAY'S RESULT -- STL 5, TOR 1
STL  0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 -- 5
TOR  0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -- 1
Liberatore dominated for six innings -- 0 ER, 7 K -- to give St. Louis the early lead. The offense was quiet from the fourth inning through the eighth before a four-run ninth, capped by Walker's two-run single, put the game away. Nootbaar's RBI double in the third scored Church for the lone early run. St. Louis took yesterday afternoon's finale but dropped the Toronto series two of three.
THE BREAKDOWN
WHAT WORKED
• Liberatore was the story: 6.0 IP, 0 ER, 7 K. He carried the load and handed a clean game to the bullpen.
• The four-run ninth broke it open. Fermin's RBI single scored Winn, and Walker's two-run single brought home two more.
• Nootbaar's RBI double in the third scored Church for the early lead -- the only run through eight innings.

WHAT DIDN'T
• Five consecutive scoreless frames (innings four through eight) left St. Louis living on a single run far longer than comfortable.
• Toronto scored in the eighth to deny the shutout, and the Cardinals still dropped the series two games to one.
BOTTOM LINE
WATCH: New York can stack as many as six left-handed bats against McGreevy -- the platoon profile that battered him in 2025. His 2026 splits say he has largely closed that gap; tonight is the sternest test yet of whether it stays closed.

• Schlittler has posted a .570 OPS against left-handed hitters in 2026, which means the Cardinals' lineup construction offers no natural edge on the other side of the ball.
• Tonight's battery pairs McGreevy with Jimmy Crooks -- a combination spanning only 2 starts and carrying a 9.35 ERA in that sample.
• New York (63-49) is playing meaningful October-chase baseball; St. Louis (55-57) needs wins in this series to stay in the wild card conversation.
KEY MATCHUPS
MCGREEVY vs YANKEES LHB CORE
McGreevy posted a .911 OPS against left-handed batters in 2025 -- a number that drops to .580 against right-handers. In 2026 he has narrowed that gap to almost nothing: .721 against lefties across 294 batters faced, .707 against righties. New York can start as many as six LHBs (Wells, Rice, Chisholm, McMahon, Grisham, Jones) -- a lineup built to test whether the 2025 platoon problem is truly behind him.
CARDINALS LHB CORE vs SCHLITTLER AT HOME
Wetherholt, Burleson, Nootbaar, and Crooks all bat left-handed against Schlittler tonight at Yankee Stadium. Schlittler's 2026 home ERA is 3.83 -- markedly higher than his 1.10 away -- but left-handed hitters managed just a .570 OPS against him in 2026. The Cardinals' LHB lineup finds no meaningful edge here.
WATCHLIST
McGreevy's first time through the order: He allowed a .792 OPS in TTO1 in 2025. With six LHBs cycling through early, those first looks matter -- watch whether New York does damage before McGreevy finds a groove or is lifted.

Battery chemistry: The unfamiliar McGreevy-Crooks pairing meets a Yankees offense that pressures the running game -- watch how quickly they settle in and control the running lanes early.

Wetherholt HR milestone: The chase detailed in the trend section below is live tonight -- watch every Wetherholt at-bat for a chance to move the number.
TREND WATCH
Lars Nootbaar slump: Nootbaar's OPS was .932 before June 28 and has been .533 across 105 plate appearances since. Yesterday afternoon's RBI double was a bright spot in an otherwise prolonged cold stretch -- the sample is now large enough that the trend is real and worth tracking every game.

JJ Wetherholt, pace for 23 HR (milestone: 20): Wetherholt has 16 home runs through 112 team games. He is on pace for 23 -- the number to watch is 20, which would be a career-high threshold.

Alec Burleson, pace for 22 HR (milestone: 20): Burleson sits at 15 home runs, on pace for 22. As with Wetherholt, the threshold that changes the conversation is 20.

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