ARCHIVE April 19, 2026
April 19, 2026 · AL West

St. Louis Cardinals vs Houston Astros

April 19, 2026Daikin ParkRoof Closed 73°F · 0 mph, None
AWAY
St. Louis Cardinals
13-8
7
vs
HOME
Houston Astros
8-15
5

Starting pitchers

AWAY · STL
Matthew Liberatore
Matthew Liberatore
IP 6
HOME · HOU
Mike Burrows
Mike Burrows
IP 4.2

Lineups

AWAY · STL
  1. 1 JJ Wetherholt 2B
  2. 2 Iván Herrera DH
  3. 3 Alec Burleson 1B
  4. 4 Jordan Walker RF
  5. 5 Nolan Gorman 3B
  6. 6 Masyn Winn SS
  7. 7 Nathan Church LF
  8. 8 Pedro Pagés C
  9. 9 Victor Scott CF
HOME · HOU
  1. 1 Carlos Correa SS
  2. 2 Yordan Alvarez DH
  3. 3 Jose Altuve 2B
  4. 4 Christian Walker 1B
  5. 5 Isaac Paredes 3B
  6. 6 Cam Smith RF
  7. 7 Yainer Diaz C
  8. 8 Shay Whitcomb LF
  9. 9 Taylor Trammell CF

Box score

  12345678910 R
STL 0000400003 7
HOU 0010000301 5

Manager comparison

Both managers grade B- / D+ entering this matchup.

AWAY · STL
Oliver Marmol
B- Lineup 1.2 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.3 R
HOME · HOU
Joe Espada
D+ Lineup 2.8 R Bunts 0.7 R IBBs 0.4 R

Recent form

AWAY · STL
7-2 W1 +13 run diff
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HOME · HOU
5-4 W1 -2 run diff
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Season series: 3-0 with STL listed first across 3 prior meetings.

Tactical analysis

RunsLeft separates manager decisions from player execution from game variance. Each card below is the same three-number framework that drives the share cards on the SPA replay page.

AWAY · St. Louis Cardinals
  • Manager lineup cost +0.01 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.82 vs actual lineup 4.81
  • Player execution +2.19 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.81 projection by 2.19 (scored 7)
  • Game variance +2.18 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Burleson 0-for-5 batting 3rd

HOME · Houston Astros
  • Manager lineup cost −0.06 R/G Optimal arrangement projects 4.39 vs actual lineup 4.45
  • Player execution +0.55 R/G Players exceeded the lineup's 4.45 projection by 0.55 (scored 5)
  • Game variance +0.61 R/G Total game outcome vs optimal expectation

Correa 0-for-3 batting 1st

COUNTERFACTUAL

Optimal lineups projected 4.8 – 4.4 — actual was 7 – 5.

Keep reading

How RunsLeft analyzes games

Standard content on this page comes from the MLB Stats API. Tactical analysis comes from a per-game Monte Carlo: 10,000 simulated games against the opposing starter's ERA, both for the actual lineup the manager wrote and for the optimal arrangement of those nine players. The three numbers — manager cost, player execution, game variance — separate which part of the result was the lineup, the players, or the dice.

Read the full methodology.