Saturday's middle game of the Target Field set lines up Matthew Liberatore for St. Louis against a Twins arm Minnesota hadn't formally announced as of this writing — and that's not a footnote, it's the story. With Bailey Ober shelved by a flexor strain and Pablo Lopez out for the year, the Twins rotation has been duct-taped together for weeks. Liberatore (3-3, 4.48) gives the Cardinals a steady lefty against a lineup that's been hunting for any kind of momentum. First pitch is 1:10 PM CT on Saturday, June 13, the middle leg of a 3-game weekend in Minneapolis. The Cardinals (37-29) come in 4-1 over their last 5, including a wire-to-wire trampling of the Mets in Queens where they outscored New York 16-2 across the first 2 games before dropping the finale 5-4. The Twins (31-39) come in 1-4 over their last 5 and got walloped 11-0 in their last look at the Tigers. Two teams pointed in very different directions. The Cardinals' run has been a Jordan Walker show as much as anything. Walker put up a 4-RBI night in the 9-2 win Wednesday and has been the engine of the order during the 6-game streak that preceded Sunday's loss. Alec Burleson chipped in a 3-RBI, homer-included afternoon in the 7-0 opener at Citi. The lineup looks more like the one the front office drew up in March than the one that sleepwalked through April. Minnesota's injury sheet is the loudest part of this preview. Ober, Lopez, David Festa, Mick Abel, Cole Sands and Kendry Rojas are all on the shelf on the pitching side, and Walker Jenkins and Ryan Jeffers are still working back on the position-player side. Joe Ryan is fine, Taj Bradley is back from his chest issue, and Connor Prielipp is being carefully managed because he's a rookie who's never thrown 90 innings in a year. That's not a rotation, that's a triage list. If the Twins have an edge, it's that Target Field has been kinder than the road this season and St. Louis is finishing a stretch of travel. Otherwise this is a confidence-vs-confidence-crisis spot, and the Cardinals get to roll a starter who's actually been on the mound consistently. Saturday afternoon at Target Field, the visitors should feel like the team in charge.