The St. Louis Cardinals were rained out of their Busch Stadium homecoming Tuesday night, when hail and a tornado warning topped the list of St. Louis meteorological maladies, and that means they'll join the Washington Nationals Wednesday in a day-night doubleheader. Game one looks a lot like Tuesday's aborted attempt—Jake Westbrook will take on John Lannan at 1:15 CDT. Wednesday's native game will happen as scheduled, with Jaime Garcia and Jordan Zimmermann meeting up at 7:15.
These games would have been strange enough for the Cardinals already, even without this added distraction; the day began with news that Ryan Franklin was out as Cardinals closer after an impossibly rough start to his 2011 season, and continued on a similar note when Skip Schumaker and Allen Craig hit the disabled list, to be replaced by Nick Punto—out since spring with a hernia—and first baseman Mark Hamilton.
Those new-look Cardinals will go on as advertised—just a day later than expected. Of course, if the Cardinals find themselves in two very close games tomorrow there's a non-zero chance that Ryan Franklin is forced into the closer role for one. And if you're rooting for that, you're a horrible person.