Oakland @ St. Louis preview
Busch Stadium
Last Meeting ( Jun 18, 2010 ) Oakland 4, St. Louis 6
The numbers don't bode well for the Oakland Athletics on Saturday when they resume their series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
The A's are 12-23 on the road, but that's not the only bad news. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright is unbeaten in six starts at Busch.
So a team that doesn't win away from home going against a pitcher that doesn't lose in his own ballpark isn't a good sign for the A's, who dropped to a season-worst three games under .500 after suffering a 6-4 setback Friday night.
Of course, baseball is the most unpredictable sport so there is no sure thing in any game, but Wainwright's success at home certainly gives St. Louis an advantage.
Wainwright's numbers at Busch have been outstanding. He's 6-0 with a 1.96 ERA (10 earned runs in 46 innings) and has given up only 34 hits.
The right-hander has pitched nine innings twice, eight frames once and seven innings twice. The only outing that resulted in fewer than seven innings came on April 29 when he pitched six against the Atlanta Braves.
Wainwright has allowed three earned runs or less in each home start. He has given up two runs twice and no runs on two other occasions.
However, there could be one sign that Wainwright could be slacking off. He did give up his first Busch home run in his last start when Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki homered to lead off the game on June 14.
Not only do the A's struggle on the road, Ben Sheets has had little success pitching against the Cardinals in his career. He compiled a 6-14 record against St. Louis in his eight seasons with Milwaukee.
Adding to manager Bob Geren's headaches, Sheets has struggled against everyone lately. He has one win in his last 11 starts, which came on May 8 against Tampa Bay.
The right-hander hasn't been terrible in this stretch, but has six losses and four no-decisions to show for it. Sheets has failed to pitch at least six innings only twice and has allowed more than four earned runs only twice. The A's offense has struggled when he's pitched and the bullpen hasn't offered much support.
The A's have lost eight of their last 10 on the road, including three in a row.
Oakland is 1-6 on its nine-game trip through the National League. The A's were swept in a three-game series in San Francisco before winning the opener of a series against Chicago, but they dropped the last two at Wrigley Field.