Milwaukee @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 6, 2010 ) Milwaukee 4, St. Louis 3

Coming off a relatively successful homestand, the Milwaukee Brewers get a chance to make some noise on the road when they meet National League Central Division rival St. Louis to start a four-game set on Thursday.

Milwaukee finds itself in third place in the division, 8 1/2 games behind front-running Cincinnati. St. Louis is just a half-game back of the Reds in what is shaping up as a two-team race.

This series is critical to the Brewers in their quest to make up ground in the standings. Milwaukee went 6-3 during its nine-game homestand, but still endured frustrating bouts of inconsistency.

Milwaukee swept the Minnesota Twins to begin the homestand and won two out of three against Seattle before falling flat against the lowly Houston Astros and dropping two of three. The Brewers are coming off a 5-1 loss to the Astros on Wednesday.

The Brewers know their chances of winning increase with a productive Prince Fielder in the lineup. The slugging first baseman is starting to get his stroke back, but is still struggling to producing runs.

Fielder had 141 RBIs last season, tying him for the major league lead, but has driven in just 35 runs so far in 2010. On the plus side, he's starting to hit home runs with more regularity and the Brewers are hoping that will result in increased run production.

After hitting only seven homers combined in April and May, Fielder belted 10 in June, including a pair of multi-homer games. He has gone deep 15 times in 72 career games against St. Louis.

The Cardinals are just 5-5 in their last 10 games, but opened a seven-game homestand by taking two of three from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

St. Louis is 30-6 when they score first and they have won 15 series this season – 11 of those coming at home, where they are 25-13.

The Cardinals will send Blake Hawksworth (2-4, 5.11 ERA) to the mound on Thursday as he comes off a successful spot start. Hawksworth pitched five solid innings in a win over Kansas City on Saturday but has been in the bullpen for all but two of his 23 appearances this season.

Randy Wolf (5-7, 4.92) will start for the Brewers. Wolf is coming off a 5-4 loss to Seattle on Saturday in which he gave up five runs and eight hits in five innings. He is 3-6 in 12 career starts against the Cardinals.