Cardinals vs. Cubs: How to Watch, and a WBC Empire Lost

ST. LOUIS — Three years ago the St. Louis Cardinals sent more players to the World Baseball Classic than any organization in baseball: 19 in all, 13 off the 40-man roster, spread across 11 countries. Adam Wainwright started for the United States. Lars Nootbaar became the first Japanese-American to play for Samurai Japan and hit .269 through a championship run. Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt played every day for Team USA. Tommy Edman became the first non-Korean native to represent Korea.

This past March, the Cardinals sent 10 — and most of them never left the bench.

How to watch Cubs vs. Cardinals

Matchup: Chicago Cubs (60-46) at St. Louis Cardinals (53-53)
Location: Busch Stadium, St. Louis
Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
First pitch: 7:45 p.m. ET / 6:45 p.m. CT
National TV: TBS
TV (Cardinals): Cardinals.TV
TV (Cubs): Marquee Sports Network
Radio (Cardinals): KMOX 1120 AM / 104.1 FM; WIJR AM 880 (en español)
Radio (Cubs): 104.3 The Score

Probable pitchers

Cardinals right-hander Michael McGreevy (4-8, 3.07 ERA) faces Cubs right-hander Colin Rea (7-7, 4.85 ERA), on normal four days’ rest after a July 23 start against Arizona.

McGreevy’s record badly understates him. His 3.07 ERA translates to a 130 ERA+, and his 1.128 WHIP is far cleaner than Rea’s 1.420 across 20 starts to 17. He has gone at least six innings in each of his last five outings and allowed three earned runs or fewer in four of them. He simply has not been given runs.

Weather at Busch Stadium

Warm and mostly clear, a considerable improvement on Monday’s washout-adjacent evening. St. Louis sat near 89 degrees Tuesday afternoon under partly sunny skies, with a high around 92 and roughly a 20 percent chance of rain. No delay is expected.

Lineups

Derrick Gould reports that Oli Marmol informs players of the lineup 24 hours in advance, though fans typically don’t see it until about three hours before first pitch. Here’s the confirmed card:

Cardinals

1. Wetherholt — 2B
2. Walker — RF
3. Burleson — 1B
4. Herrera — DH
5. Nootbaar — LF
6. Winn — SS
7. Church — CF
8. Fermín — 3B
9. Crooks — C

McGreevy gets the start. Lineups subject to change.

What happened Monday

Chicago took the opener 7-3 after a rain delay, out-hitting St. Louis 14-7. Nico Hoerner went 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBI; Alex Bregman also went 4-for-5, with a home run, two doubles and three runs. The two combined for eight of Chicago’s 14 hits.

Matthew Liberatore was charged with three earned over 3.2 innings. José Fermín homered for St. Louis, but the Cardinals went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and committed the game’s only error. The loss dropped them back to .500.

Baseball Without Borders: what the Cardinals used to be

In February 2023, the Cardinals announced that 19 players from their organization had been named to World Baseball Classic rosters — the most of any major league club. Thirteen came off the 40-man. They represented 11 of the 20 participating countries, with multiple players each for the United States, Colombia, Great Britain, Mexico and Panama.

They weren’t roster filler. Adam Wainwright started for the United States. Nootbaar, eligible through his mother Kumiko Enokida, became the first player born outside Japan to represent Samurai Japan and was a genuine phenomenon there. Arenado and Goldschmidt anchored the American lineup. Edman, eligible through his mother, became the first non-Korean native to play for Korea.

Andre Pallante pitched for Italy. Lance Lynn, a 2011 World Series champion in St. Louis, threw for the United States against Canada and Venezuela.

Where they went

Wainwright retired after 2023. Arenado and Goldschmidt are gone — Goldschmidt now with the Yankees. Edman is a Dodger. Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray left in the offseason, Brendan Donovan in a trade that returned two 2026 draft picks. Pallante remains, and is among the names most often floated ahead of Monday’s deadline.

What the Cardinals sent in 2026

Ten players, and the contributions were thin.

Gordon Graceffo was the exception. The right-hander pitched for Italy, an Azzurri side that lived in high-leverage innings all tournament and came within a round of the final. He worked against Mexico in the group stage. It was, by some distance, the most meaningful experience any Cardinals arm got out of the tournament.

Infielder Thomas Saggese joined him on the Italian roster. Catching prospect Leo Bernal appeared in all four of Panama’s games, going 4-for-17 — a decade after playing for Panama at the 2016 Little League World Series, where he caught in the international championship against South Korea.

All-Star Iván Herrera was named to Panama’s roster but never appeared (via WorldBaseball.com) reporting insurance complications kept him off the field. It would not have been his first turn in Panama’s colors — Herrera played first base for Panama at the 2022 Caribbean Series.

The rest — Luis Gastelum with Mexico, Matt Koperniak with Great Britain, Zach Levenson and Noah Mendlinger with Israel, Riley O’Brien with Korea, Bryan Torres with Puerto Rico — were largely depth selections from a farm system rather than contributors off the major league roster.

Nootbaar wasn’t there at all. He underwent surgery on both heels in the offseason and was one of only two members of Japan’s 2023 title team left off the 2026 roster.

The Cubs, meanwhile, are still in it

Chicago sent 13 players representing nine countries — and unlike St. Louis, several were everyday contributors who are in tonight’s lineup.

Seiya Suzuki played for defending champion Japan after missing 2023 through injury, homering against South Korea in Tokyo. Alex Bregman and Pete Crow-Armstrong played for the United States — Crow-Armstrong homering against Italy in Houston. Catcher Miguel Amaya caught for Panama in San Juan.

Jameson Taillon pitched for Canada. Javier Assad went to Mexico, Jonathon Long to Chinese Taipei, BJ Murray to Great Britain, Daniel Palencia to Venezuela, Yacksel Ríos to Puerto Rico, Christian Bethancourt and Erian Rodriguez to Panama, Matthew Boyd to the United States.

One Cardinal did make the tournament’s biggest stage

Just not in a Cardinals uniform. Yadier Molina managed Puerto Rico, and met Nolan Arenado on the field before the quarterfinal against Italy in Houston.

The one who wanted in

The most striking Cardinals WBC story of 2026 belongs to a player who never got the chance.

JJ Wetherholt, whose grandmother is from South Korea, was ruled ineligible to represent the country he’d hoped to play for.

“Unfortunately, I am not Korean enough,” Wetherholt said in January. “It was a dream of mine, and my grandma is getting old, so I really wanted to play for them just because I think it would really mean a lot to her.”

The rules turn on a generation. Wetherholt was born in Maryland and is a U.S. citizen; eligibility for South Korea would have required a parent who was a citizen or born there. A grandparent wasn’t enough. “I told my dad, I believe he is still potentially eligible,” Wetherholt added.

The line hasn’t always been drawn there. Mike Piazza played for Italy at the inaugural 2006 Classic through a grandparent — and the Cardinals themselves have twice benefited from the maternal-heritage rule, with Lars Nootbaar for Japan and Tommy Edman for Korea, the same country Wetherholt was denied.

He signed an eight-year, $112.5 million extension six months later.

Six days to the deadline

Chaim Bloom’s first deadline as president of baseball operations arrives Monday with St. Louis at .500 and trending toward a sell-off. Dustin May, Andre Pallante, JoJo Romero, Riley O’Brien and Pedro Pagés are the names most frequently attached to trade talk. The club has already moved one piece, sending right-hander Scott Blewett to the Athletics on Sunday for cash.

Lance Lynn’s case for trading Masyn Winn

Lynn, who pitched for Team USA in 2023, floated moving the Gold Glove shortstop and sliding JJ Wetherholt across to short — reasoning that St. Louis has already committed to Wetherholt financially and that a Winn trade is the one move that could return young, controllable starting pitching.

The money is real. Wetherholt signed an eight-year, $112.5 million extension two weeks ago, and shortstop is his natural position. Winn has not been extended. Both are in tonight’s lineup.

The catcher surplus

In April, national analyst Greg Amsinger told KMOX Sports he believed St. Louis was positioning Herrera to be moved. “If there’s a tradeable piece, it’s Iván Herrera,” Amsinger said. “I believe the Cardinals want him behind the plate once every five days to show the other 29 MLB teams that he’s a catcher, to get maximum value.”

Four months later Herrera is an All-Star, named to the National League roster as Shohei Ohtani’s replacement, and among the most frequently mentioned names on the market. St. Louis also has Pagés and Bernal behind him — all three, like Herrera, Panamanian selections.

Rest of the series

The clubs play again Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. ET and close with a Thursday matinee at 2:15 p.m. ET. St. Louis then travels to Toronto; Chicago hosts the Yankees.