St. Louis @ Cincinnati preview
Great American Ball Park
Last Meeting ( May 2, 2010 ) Cincinnati 0, St. Louis 6
The Cincinnati Reds own baseball’s longest winning streak and have a chance to move into first place in the National League Central Division tonight because of it.
The St. Louis Cardinals have just lost three straight games to the Houston Astros and could fall out of first tonight because of it.
The Reds enter this weekend’s three-game series at Great American Ballpark with five straight victories thanks to stellar starting pitching, while St. Louis was roughed up for 19 runs against batting challenged Houston.
Yet it’s the Cardinals who come into this game with a pitcher sporting an ERA of nearly five runs less than his Reds counterpart tonight.
St. Louis will attempt to reverse the tide with the surprise of their staff, Jaime Garcia.
The 23-year-old left-hander had only one major league start prior to this season before impressing in spring training and winning the Cardinals’ fifth starter position.
Since then he has posted a Bob Gibson-esque 1.18 earned run average while allowing just 26 hits in 38 innings and sporting a nifty 30-15 strikeouts-to-walks ratio.
Still, Garcia has often been the victim of tough luck and poor offensive support. Witness a 2-0 loss to Pittsburgh in his last start Saturday, and that bodes well for the Reds.
Meanwhile, Aaron Harang will be hard-pressed to duplicate the feats of Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey, who became the first Reds pitchers to throw back-to-back shutouts since 1989 when they blanked the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
But the 32-year-old Harang, whose career seemed to be almost in jeopardy after dropping his first three decisions of the year, has turned in quality starts in his last three appearances. The right-hander is coming off a 14-2 victory against the Cubs last Saturday, striking out nine and walking one in 6 2/3 innings.
Such has been the key to Cincinnati’s run of pitching gems. The belief around the Reds’ clubhouse is their pitchers have been able to improve by throwing strikes. Neither Cueto nor Bailey walked a batter in their shutouts, and Harang has been challenging hitters lately by hitting the inside corner of the plate with his fastball.
However, the Cardinals have already beaten Harang twice this season.
For St. Louis, slugger Albert Pujols hasn’t hit a home run in his last 69 at-bats and second baseman Felipe Lopez will probably not come off the disabled list until next week.
The last time the Reds were in first place was 366 days ago, when they were involved in a three-way tie for the lead. Prior to that, one has to look back to Aug. 24, 2006, to find a first-place Cincinnati team.
St. Louis is 4-2 against the Reds this season.