St. Louis @ Pittsburgh preview
PNC Park
Last Meeting ( May 7, 2010 ) St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 3
The St. Louis Cardinals had plenty of reasons to think they could repeat as NL Central champions this year - Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday, Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, to name a few.
Jaime Garcia wasn't one of them.
But the 23-year-old left-hander has been a big part of the first-place Cardinals' early success, taking a 3-1 record and a 1.13 ERA - third-best in the National League - into his sixth start of the season on Saturday at the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Garcia was a top prospect until he underwent Tommy John surgery after making 10 appearances for the Cardinals in 2008 and had to sit out most of 2009 before stint at Triple-A Memphis late in the year.
He appears to be all the way now, having gone at least six innings in each of his five starts this season - and he hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in any of them. In his one loss, he was a victim of poor run support, as the Cardinals lost, 4-1, to the San Francisco Giants.
Over his last two outings - both wins - Garcia has allowed only one run on seven hits in 13 innings. He has struck 11 in that span.
Garcia goes up against a Pittsburgh lineup that has been swinging the bat better of late after an extended slump that saw the Pirates' team batting average drop 43 points in an 11-game span. They've gained back 16 of those points, though they're still struggling to score runs - Pittsburgh has topped four runs only once in its past eight games.
Andrew McCutchen has been hot for Pittsburgh, going 7-for-10 in three games since sitting out Tuesday with a sprained right ankle.
The Pirates also have gotten more from their starting pitchers this week - which isn't saying much considering the group has the worst ERA of any starting rotation in the majors. Pittsburgh's starters have allowed only four earned runs - and seven total runs - in 25 1/3 innings over the past four games.
It's up to 27-year-old right-hander Jeff Karstens to keep that trend going. Karstens will make his third start since being called up from the minors, and the first two came with mixed results. In his season debut, Karstens allowed two runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings at Milwaukee. But he was knocked around by the Dodgers his last time out, giving up six runs on 11 hits over five innings.
He'll face a Cardinals' lineup that is dangerous, particularly in the middle of the order. Pujols, who had an 11-game hitting streak stopped by an 0-for-5 night Friday, hits in front of Holliday (.298), rookie David Freese (.344), Yadier Molina (.312) and Colby Rasmus (.299).