WASHINGTON • As the Cardinals ready for the second half of the regular season, they're already making moves like the first half.
The Cardinals will open their five-game series at Wrigley Field without All-Star righthander Miles Mikolas, who was placed on paternity leave Wednesday. The Cardinals recalled reliever Matt Bowman from Class AAA Memphis, and he will travel with the team to Chicago on Thursday morning. By rule, paternity leave must be longer than one day and no longer than three days.
If Mikolas takes the entire paternity leave, the earliest he'd be available to pitch would be Saturday, when the Cubs and Cardinals play a doubleheader.