Sunday, June 14 wraps a 3-game set at Target Field with a 1:10 PM CT first pitch. The Cardinals roll in at 37-29, riding what was a 6-game winning streak before the Mets clipped them 5-4 on Wednesday. The Twins are 31-39, lost 4 of 5, and got buried 11-0 in Detroit on Thursday in a game that included Alex Jackson pitching the 8th. Probable starters haven't been pinned down yet for the finale, but the Cardinals rotation has been the engine here — the 7-0 win over the Mets on Tuesday and the 9-2 follow-up Wednesday were the kind of suffocating, run-prevention games this team is built around in 2026. Whichever arm draws the matinee gets a Twins lineup still working without Walker Jenkins and Ryan Jeffers, and one that just got shut out for 9 innings 2 days ago. Minnesota's pitching staff is the bigger problem. Bailey Ober and Pablo Lopez are both on the IL, David Festa is on the 60-day, and Mick Abel is rehabbing at Triple-A St. Paul. That's basically the front of the rotation. Zebby Matthews got hammered for 7 runs and 3 homers in the Thursday loss, and the bullpen is missing Cole Sands and Kendry Rojas. The injury card below tells the whole story. The other thing keeping the Twins afloat — Byron Buxton — is having a real season, but the supporting cast has not been good enough to dig out of a 5-2 hole on a getaway day, which is the spot they keep finding themselves in. Jim Souhan's column in the Star Tribune literally floated the idea of writing off 2026 entirely. That's the temperature in Minneapolis right now. St. Louis isn't a juggernaut, and the Mets reminded them on Wednesday that a 1-run loss is always sitting there when the bats go cold. But this is a clear directional mismatch on a Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals are playing tight, complete baseball. The Twins are playing for next week.