St. Louis @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 28, 2010 ) St. Louis 8, NY Mets 7

After working overtime the night before, the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets will waste little time getting back at it Thursday afternoon in the rubber match of their three-game set at Citi Field.

The teams played for more than four hours Wednesday in a game where the Cardinals scored six runs in the first off of Mets starter Johan Santana only to watch their bullpen give the lead away.

The Mets rallied but ran out of gas and Albert Pujols came through with an RBI single in the 13th inning to drive home the winning run.

The teams will hit the field for Thursday's matinee less than 12 hours after finishing Wednesday's marathon.

The Mets and Cardinals combined to use 16 pitchers Wednesday, so both managers will be looking for their starting pitchers to bear the burden in the series finale.

St. Louis can salvage a 3-3 split on their six-game road trip with a win Thursday as they send Blake Hawksworth to the hill.

Hawksworth (4-6, 5.23 ERA) will be making his first career start against the Mets and the Cards will hope to get a little more out of him than they did in his last start. Hawksworth allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings on Saturday. It was his shortest outing since being inserted into the rotation on June 26.

Looking to eat some innings for the Mets will be starter Mike Pelfrey.

Pelfrey (10-5, 4.00) has not won since June 25th and has not been very good since then either. He gave up two runs and six hits in five innings of a 3-2, 13-inning loss to the Dodgers on Saturday.

That was the best start in some time for Pelfrey, who is 0-3 with a 10.53 ERA in his last five outings. He hasn't won since June 25th.

The Mets need a big start from Pelfrey as they have lost three of their last four games and are falling out of the race in the National League East with Atlanta leading the division and Philadelphia heating up with seven straight wins.

The Cardinals are in a virtual tie with the Cincinnati Reds for first in the NL Central and return home for winnable series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks after finishing up with the Mets.