St. Louis @ Houston preview
Minute Maid Park
Last Meeting ( Jul 9, 2010 ) St. Louis 8, Houston 0
A day after their ace helped the St. Louis Cardinals stop the bleeding, a newly-acquired teammate will try his hand at just getting in the win column.
Jeff Suppan will be looking for that elusive first win of the season in the second of a three-game set against the Houston Astros on Saturday. He’ll have big shoes to fill if he hopes to duplicate what Adam Wainwright did on Friday.
Wainwright tossed eight innings of shutout ball and allowed just six singles as the Cardinals secured an 8-0 win in the opener. In the process, St. Louis, which had dropped five of seven, snapped a three-game losing skid.
Coupled with a loss by the Cincinnati Reds, the Cardinals (46-40) moved to within two games of first place in the National League Central. Houston (25-52), which remains 13 ½ back and in fifth place, has dominated at home against St. Louis in winning seven of 10 at Minute Maid Park.
It will be up to the 35-year Suppan to keep the Cardinals headed in the right direction as he looks to regroup from his 0-4 start and 6.44 ERA through six starts with the club.
Suppan, who was acquired by the Cardinals from Milwaukee in June, spent the early part of the campaign working out of the Brewers’ bullpen. The right-hander, who played three years with the Cardinals from 2004-06, has losses in his past two starts.
It doesn’t figure to be an easy task for Suppan against the Astros, a team which he is 3-7 with a 5.00 ERA in 18 career games against.
He will be pitted against a pitcher in Brett Myers (5-6, 3.57), who has pitched better in his first season with Houston than his record may indicate.
Myers will be facing the Cardinals for already the third time this season following two strong showing against them so far. The 30-year-old right-hander has allowed three earned runs in 13 innings over those starts.
Myers has been particularly impressive when pitching at home on the season, going 4-0 with a 2.68 ERA in eight starts.
He will attempt to find a way to slow the heart of the Cardinals’ order as Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols supplied the offense in Friday’s triumph by each belting a home run and driving in three runs.
Felipe Lopez and Skip Schumaker each added RBIs, while the Astros were held without an extra-base hit after coming off a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates.