Cincinnati @ St. Louis preview
Busch Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 16, 2010 ) St. Louis 2, Cincinnati 7
Aside from being the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day is the first real measuring stick of the baseball season. Now, the fact that the St. Louis Cardinals are near the top of the NL Central is not a surprise, but for the Cincinnati Reds, that is another story.
The first-place Reds look to continue their surprise season Monday when they visit the Cardinals for the opener of a three-game set at Busch Stadium.
Cincinnati (30-21) has a one-game lead over St. Louis in the division thanks to a hot stretch of play that has seen the Reds win 16 of their last 22 games. Cincinnati had won four straight before losing to the Houston Astros, 2-0, in 10 innings on Sunday.
Part of the reason for the Reds' recent surge has been a home run barrage that also ended Sunday. Cincinnati had hit a home run in 18 straight games - the third-longest run in franchise history - before Sunday's shutout.
Despite being blanked by the lowly Astros, the Reds have been playing good baseball and have been doing it of late without one of the biggest weapons.
First baseman Joey Votto missed his fifth consecutive game Sunday because of a stiff neck. Votto still leads the club with 33 RBIs, but veteran Miquel Cairo has filled in valiantly, going 11-for-23 with two doubles, two home runs and three RBIs in Votto's absence.
While the Reds finally cooled off Sunday, St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols is starting to heat up.
Pujols entered Sunday with two homers in his previous 114 at-bats but clubbed three long balls to spark the Cardinals to a 9-1 victory over the Cubs in Chicago.
With the power surge at Wrigley Field, Pujols is the only active player with four career three-homer games and two have come at Wrigley against the Cubs. It was also Pujols' 36th career multi-homer game in 10 seasons with the Cards and put him one game shy from tying the franchise record Hall of Famer Stan Musial set in 22 seasons with the Cardinals.
Bronson Arroyo (5-2, 4.30 ERA) makes the start for the Reds and will be looking for his second win against the Cardinals this season. Arroyo has already faced St. Louis twice and Cincinnati has won both times - including Arroyo's only complete game of the season, a 7-2 win on May 16 in Cincinnati.
Jaime Garcia (4-2, 1.14 ERA) starts for the Cardinals and will be facing the Reds for the second time this season. Garcia is second in the NL in ERA behind Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his nine starts this season.