St. Louis

Cardinals

Gray has been awesome for the most part, but his four bad outings have seen him give up five, six (four earned), seven and six runs, giving him a middling 3.84 ERA. The loss tonight leaves him 7-2 on the year. He figures to fare much better against the White Sox next week.

Cardinals’ manager Oli Marmol told reporters that Donovan will play catch and move around a bit on Thursday to see how his toe responds. He’ll then attempt to take batting practice on Friday, after which the team will make a decision on whether or not he will require a trip to the injured list. It sounds like fantasy managers should have reason for optimism here.

Roycroft has struggled in his chances with the Cardinals as seen in a 6.92 ERA over 13 innings. He’ll head back to Memphis — again — with Andre Granillo replacing him on the active roster.

Vilade picked up one hit in 13 at-bats in another unimpressive stint for the former second-round pick. He’ll hit the waiver wire with Michael Siani taking his place on the roster.

Siani is up to provide the Cardinals with some outfield depth. The 25-year-old provides speed and defense for the St. Louis lineup, but doesn’t provide fantasy upside in turn.

Granillo will have a chance to make his MLB debut. The right-hander has been excellent with a 46/8 K/BB ratio and 1.82 ERA in Memphis, and it’s feasible that he could work his way into a high-leverage role if he has success in his first state of MLB action.

Donovan told reporters that he’s not concerned about the possibility of an injured list stint at this point. It seems likely he’ll get a few games off over the remainder of the week to prevent the issue from becoming a greater concern, but it doesn’t appear that he’s facing an extended absence. The versatile 28-year-old has been outstanding this season, hitting .310/.379/.440 with four homers, 26 RBI and three steals through 64 games.

The good news is that Liberatore’s fastball was all of the way back today after he left his previous start with “fatigue” amid a velocity drop. Still, it was another mediocre outing for the left-hander, who was stuck facing nothing except for righties and switch-hitters today, He’s given up 14 earned runs over 14 innings in his last three starts, taking his ERA from 2.73 to 3.93. He gets the White Sox next, so that should help.

There’s a good chance it’s his last time hitting leadoff for a bit. Nootbaar is 0-for-14 with nine strikeouts in his last three games, and he’s batting .167 with 29 strikeouts in his last 18 games. He’ll pull out of it, but he should probably bat lower until it happens. We’d recommend sticking with him in mixed leagues.

Donovan is out of the lineup for Wednesday’s about against the Blue Jays, but whether or not he’s headed to the injured list will be largely determined by the result of that imaging. An initial X-ray on Tuesday came back negative, but obviously wasn’t conclusive enough for the Cardinals to feel confident. Jose Fermin would likely take Donovan’s roster spot if necessary.