St. Louis @ Chicago preview
Wrigley Field
Last Meeting ( May 29, 2010 ) St. Louis 0, Chi. Cubs 5
A pair of first basemen going in opposite directions offensively will try to propel their teams as the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs play the rubber match of a three-game series today at Wrigley Field.
St. Louis (28-22) is only 5-5 in their last 10 games. One big reason for their mediocre play is the struggles of first baseman Albert Pujols. The perennial All-Star is hitting just .205 (8-for-39) in his last 11 games with one home run and five RBIs and has seen his average plummet from .324 to .299 over that stretch.
As a result, the Cards have struggled to score runs at times, shown by their inability to score more than three runs in eight of their last 14 games.
Chicago, on the other hand, has won nine of their last 13 on the back of strong offensive play from their first baseman, Derrek Lee. Lee is hitting .429 for the Cubs (24-26) and has reached base in more than half of his plate appearances over the past week.
Another blemish on St. Louis’ strong start is its struggles on the road. The Cardinals are just 13-14 outside of Busch Stadium, in large part because of the pitching. The Cardinals have a team ERA of 3.25 on the road compared to 2.63 at home.
St. Louis will try to reverse these trends by sending Adam Wainwright (6-3, 2.38) to the mound today. Wainwright was a Cy Young candidate last year in going 19-8. He has continued his strong pitching this year, allowing less than one baserunner per inning.
Chicago will counter with Ryan Dempster (3-4, 3.31). Dempster has pitched well this season, but has been the recipient of poor run support. He has seven quality starts in 10 outings this year, but had gone winless in five straight until he threw eight shutout innings his last time out to get a 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Working in Dempster’s favor is that the Cubs have been a much better hitting team at home. The Cubs are hitting .278 as a team and score 4.6 runs per game at the friendly confines of Wrigley.
The Cardinals won Friday’s opening game of the series 7-1 before Chicago bounced back Saturday with a 5-0 win.
St. Louis sits 1 1/2 games back of first-place Cincinnati while the Cubs are 5 ½ back in the National League Central.