The St. Louis Cardinals pitching staff was already showing signs of strain heading into a difficult stretch of schedule.

Its challenge got even greater after rain postponed Wednesday's home game against the Kansas City Royals. The teams will play a day-night doubleheader Thursday at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals will play 12 games in the next 11 days. They have lost three of their last four games while allowing 29 runs in those defeats.

St. Louis will start Miles Mikolas (4-2, 3.90 ERA) in Game 1 Thursday and left-hander Matthew Liberatore (3-4, 3.08) in Game 2. The Royals will counter with left-hander Noah Cameron (2-1, 1.05) and Cole Ragans (2-3, 4.53).

Mikolas is coming off his second-worst start of the season, a no-decision on May 28 against the Baltimore Orioles. He allowed four ru

See Full Page