It’s safe to say St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman has earned some downtime. A day after his 46-game on-base streak ended, the Cards elected to sit Goldschmidt for their series finale against the Cincinnati Reds. 

Here is the #STLCards lineup today behind RHP Dakota Hudson while facing the #Reds . Paul Goldschmidt gets the day off and LF Tyler O’Neill is back hitting in the No. 3 slot. pic.twitter.com/HNcYWFdkEQ

— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) June 12, 2022

Goldschmidt is doing things that no one else can keep pace with this season. The MVP candidate leads the majors in hits, batting average, and on-base percentage, ranking sixth in on-base plus slugging percentage and fourth in runs batted in. 

Those performances have moved Goldschmidt into the NL MVP conversation, with the four-time Silver Slugger sitting second to Mookie Betts on the futures board.

As noted by John Denton, Tyler O’Neill takes over the three-hole in the batting order, with Juan Yepez holding down first base duties. 

The Cardinals continue to occupy top spot in the NL Central, but not thanks to their current performances. St. Louis has dropped three of their past five but goes for the series sweep against the lowly Reds. FanDuel Sportsbook has the Cards lined as -172 favorites for Sunday’s matinee.