Jon Jay lands on the DL.  Cardinals will miss his ability to get on base and his defense.  UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Jon Jay lands on the DL. Cardinals will miss his ability to get on base and his defense. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

The Cardinals outfield is banged up and their first baseman is trying to get out of a huge slump.  While the offense is struggling to generate runs, they better figure it out quick when the hard hitting Detroit Tigers show up at Busch Stadium later this evening for the start of three games.

Detroit is 21-14, just a game behind the Royals and their starting pitching is coming around to support an offense that is showing a lot of pop.  Miguel Cabrera (8 HRs), J.D. Martinez (7 HRs) and Yeonis Cespedes (4 HRs) have almost as many homers as Matt Carpenter, Jhonny Peralta, Matt Adams, Matt Holliday, Jason Heyward and Mark Reynolds combined.  Those six Cardinals hitters have 20, compared to the Tigers big three of 19.

Here to talk more about this weekend’s matchup is Chris Lepley from the Michigan Radio Network.

Jon Jay, struggling with wrist and thumb soreness has been placed on the DL.  Jay is hitting just .248 with only two extra base hits.  Holliday was back in the lineup as the DH on Thursday after getting plunked by a Corey Kluber fastball on Wednesday.  Holliday left that game after that one plate appearance, but also reached base yesterday to give him 32 straight games of getting on base safely this year.

Adams struck out two more times on Thursday and is stuck in a 1 for 30 slump.  His average has dipped to .236.