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Among the few constants in the 2025 Cardinals season has been the team's declining offense.

The Cardinals and Pirates square off at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday in the third of a four-game set.聽The series is tied 1-1 after Andre Pallante's horrific start resulted in an 8-3 Pirates win on Tuesday.

When the ground-ball approach that has defined Andre Pallante leads to contact that lands for hits rather than outs, it opens the possibility of the Cardinals starter finding himself in a 鈥渢ough position.鈥�

Pallante鈥檚 Tuesday start vs. the Pirates provided an example.

This rare moment in Major League Baseball history occurred, as they do, in Altoona.

In the Pennsylvania town that鈥檚 home to the Pirates鈥� Class AA team, Paul Skenes met a fellow pitcher who was, like Skenes in 2023, the first overall pick in the MLB draft 鈥� former Cardinals standout Andy Benes.

Following his ejection and heated exchange Monday night with home plate Derek Thomas, Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras received a six-game suspension and an undisclosed fine, though he elected to appeal the suspension, it was announced Tuesday by Major League Baseball.

Any discipline for Contreras will remain pending until the appeal process is complete, per MLB. The appeal kept Contreras available for Tuesday鈥檚 game at Busch Stadium against the Pirates. He started at first base and hit fourth for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals will once again host opening day at Busch Stadium, and a home-heavy first half of the 2026 schedule will lead to catching up on the road, right down to the final week, with a swing through two National League Central cities to close out the regular season.

For the second consecutive season and third time in four years, the Cardinals will host an American League team to start the season.

Sure, there鈥檚 fairly straightforward reasoning that lends itself to the belief that Cardinals starting pitcher Sonny Gray could be more receptive to a trade this offseason than last.

During a recent Fox broadcast of a Cardinals game against the New York Yankees, the topic of Gray鈥檚 future became fodder for speculation with baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal raising the potential of Gray changing teams this winter.