Washington Nationals first baseman Juan Yepez is enjoying his weekend return to St. Louis.
“It’s always fun to come here,” he said. “The fans here are great and I think they were very good to me and to my family.”
Yepez, who spent parts of the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Cardinals, is 5-for-9 with five RBIs and three runs in the first two contests of the three-game series. He comes into Sunday’s series finale at Busch Stadium as one of baseball’s hottest hitters.
“He’s been awesome since he’s been called up,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said after Saturday’s 14-3 victory over St. Louis. “He’s doing his job. He’s not trying to do too much. He’s hitting the ball everywhere, driving in big runs for us. He’s playing really well.”
Yepez is hitting .377 with a 1.037 OPS in 18 games since arriving from Triple-A Rochester earlier this month.
“You go up there thinking he’s going to get a hit, honestly,” Nationals outfielder Jacob Young told the Washington Post. “He’s done a great job coming from Triple-A to here. It’s not an easy thing to do to get off to a start like this.”
The Nationals will turn to rookie left-hander DJ Herz (1-4, 4.95 ERA) in an attempt to secure a series sweep. Herz suffered a tough-luck 4-0 loss on Tuesday to the San Diego Padres in his last start, allowing two runs on five hits — including two solo homers — in five innings while striking out four batters and walking two.
Herz dropped an 8-3 decision to the Cardinals on July 7 in his only previous game against them. Herz allowed five runs (four earned) in 4 1/3 innings, with Nolan Gorman driving in two runs and Dylan Carlson hitting an RBI double for St. Louis.
The Nationals reportedly made a trade on Saturday, sending outfielder Jesse Winker to the New York Mets.
The Cardinals have lost nine of their last 14 games. They have allowed 24 runs over the first two games of this series.
“These two days, not ideal,” St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol said. “We had a hundred days of it that were pretty darned good.”
The Cardinals on Saturday will start Miles Mikolas (8-8, 5.02), who is coming off a 6-2 victory in Atlanta. He held the Braves to two runs on seven hits while striking out three and walking one in six innings.
Along the way, he induced the Braves to hit into three double plays.
“This is a team where you look at them and there’s big swings, big guys and a lot of pop up and down the lineup,” Mikolas said. “It’s definitely a group you want to keep on the ground.”
Mikolas blanked the Nationals over 6 1/3 innings during a 6-0 victory on July 8. He allowed six hits, struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.
He is 4-3 with a 3.28 ERA in nine career appearances against the Nationals, including eight starts.
–Field Level Media
