Cardinals and Reds kick off an unusual Monday doubleheader with two pitching call-ups

The St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds will open Monday’s action in an atypical setting for Major League Baseball, with a 1:40 p.m. first pitch that serves both as a matinee and as a make-up game connected to a rainout from May 24. The contest is also the first game of a split doubleheader, a format that compresses preparation and forces managers to balance day-to-day roster usage with the realities of pitching availability.

According to CBS Sports, the matchup features “two minor-league call-ups on [the] mound,” which means each club is expected to turn to a pitcher promoted from the organization’s development pipeline for this specific opportunity. For teams in the long arc of the season, that kind of decision often reflects a mix of depth planning and a desire to see how younger pitchers handle the pressure that comes with late-season, high-attention starts.

The “split doubleheader” wrinkle matters because it tightens the usual timeline. Even when both clubs enter with their respective long relievers ready and their bullpen roles clearly defined, a first game that begins earlier than usual can affect warmup windows, bullpen availability for the second game, and the chain of substitutions that typically follows a pitcher’s early exit. In practical terms, it places extra weight on managerial discipline early in counts, pitch selection, and how quickly each starter can find the strike zone.

For the Cardinals, the added day-to-day complexity is amplified by the fact that Monday’s opener is also a make-up. Make-up dates do not just change the calendar, they change the sequence of opponent matchups and the rhythm of rest. When a club chooses to use a call-up in that context, it can be viewed as an audition for a role that may extend beyond the next start, particularly if the pitcher’s command holds up when the game takes on urgency.

For the Reds, a similar logic applies. A doubleheader at the MLB level is rarely an “easy” environment for a promoted pitcher, because the workload demands are different and because the second game can reduce how long a manager can wait for a struggling starter. The first game of a split doubleheader is often where a promoted arm has the clearest chance to set the tone, get quick outs, and establish trust for whatever follows.

CBS Sports’ preview frames Monday’s matinee as a rare scheduling event, and that rarity is part of why the pitching matchup carries extra interest. Not every day brings a make-up date paired with a split doubleheader and two organizational call-ups starting in the same opener. When those elements align, the game becomes less about “one more series” and more about evaluating emerging talent under conditions that mirror the demands of a full slate.

As the opener approaches, the key developments to watch are straightforward but telling: whether each starter can work efficiently, how often the bullpen gets called before the normal midpoint of a start, and how the teams manage leverage situations early and late in the game. Those details often reveal more than the final line, especially when promoted pitchers are trying to translate minor-league momentum to the scale of a major-league matinee in front of a full doubleheader plan.