(Photo credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images)

Houston catcher Yainer Diaz was absent from the starting lineup on Friday when the Astros lost 9-4 to the visiting St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a three-game interleague series.

While the Astros have enjoyed success offensively this season, leading the American League in several categories, Diaz has labored. He is batting .094, with an on-base percentage of .094 and a slugging percentage of .188, since his last multi-hit game on April 4 against the Athletics, a span of eight games.

Diaz, 27, is batting .186 for the season, with one homer and nine RBIs. Astros manager Joe Espada said the club is working with him to tweak some things related to his approach at the plate.

'You always want to remind yourself that the hitters are who they are,' Espada said. 'Yainer Diaz has always been someone who likes to swing, and there's nothing wrong with that. And we're not asking him to always swing at strikes. It's almost impossible to do. To hit is really hard.

'But there are areas of the plate that he covers really well, so he can focus in those areas and stay in those areas, and then he can do damage. For us, it's just to remind him of who he is.'

Right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. (1-0, 5.87 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Astros in the second game of the series on Saturday.

McCullers has not recorded a decision in his last two starts despite allowing nine runs on 10 hits and five walks with eight strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings in two Houston losses. He was stellar in his season debut against the Boston Red Sox on March 30, yielding one run on four hits and one walk with nine strikeouts in seven innings.

McCullers will make his first career start against the Cardinals. In 18 career interleague starts, he is 6-7 with a 4.32 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 93 2/3 innings.

Right-hander Andre Pallante (1-1, 4.80 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Cardinals on Saturday.

Pallante allowed seven runs (six earned) on nine hits and one walk with two strikeouts in five innings of a 9-3 loss to the Red Sox on Sunday, tripling the earned runs allowed from his first two starts combined. Pallante tossed five shutout innings at the New York Mets in his season debut on March 31.

Pallante is 0-1 with a 16.20 ERA in two career appearances (one start) against the Astros. In his lone start against Houston on June 4, 2024, he allowed six runs on six hits and three walks with one strikeout in three innings in an 8-5 road loss.

The Cardinals announced on Friday that right-hander Richard Fitts underwent season-ending surgery to address a right lat strain that recently resulted in his being placed on the minor league injury list.

Fitts arrived from Boston as part of the trade that shipped right-hander Sonny Gray to the Red Sox during the offseason. Fitts went 2-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 15 appearances (14 starts) across two seasons with the Red Sox. He made three starts with Triple-A Memphis this season (2-0, 1.76 ERA) before landing on the IL.

'It's someone that we definitely were going to count on providing some innings and helping when the time presented itself this year,' Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. 'Really unfortunate because it's someone that we would have liked to see and a really good competitor.'

--Field Level Media