San Francisco @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( May 30, 2014 ) San Francisco 9, St. Louis 4

The player tabbed as the best St. Louis prospect since Albert Pujols makes his major-league debut on Saturday when Oscar Taveras joins the Cardinals for the contest against the visiting San Francisco Giants. St. Louis announced the promotion of the 21-year-old outfielder from Triple-A Memphis after Friday’s loss to the Giants and placed first baseman Matt Adams (calf) on the 15-day disabled list. San Francisco has won eight of its last nine after winning the first two of the four-game series.

Taveras was batting .325 with seven homers and 40 RBIs at Memphis and his arrival in St. Louis will create a major buzz. “I think everybody should be excited. I know he is,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny told reporters. “We’ve been waiting for a while. There have been a lot of people anticipating him getting here and hopefully we can limit the distractions for him for where he just goes and plays the game.” Yusmeiro Petit will start for the Giants after scheduled starter Matt Cain (hamstring) was placed on the disabled list Friday.

TV: 2:15 p.m. ET, CSN Bay Area (San Francisco), FSN Midwest (St. Louis)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Giants RH Yusmeiro Petit (3-2, 5.08 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Michael Wacha (3-3, 2.67)

Petit is making his fifth start of the season and will look to match the success he had in an emergency start he made for Cain last month. On that occasion, Petit tossed six innings of three-hit shutout ball while defeating San Diego on April 29. Petit is 2-2 with a 5.75 ERA in six career appearances (three starts) against St. Louis.

Wacha is facing San Francisco for the first time in his short career. He is 3-0 with a 2.79 ERA in six home starts this season but has only one victory since mid-April. Wacha received a no-decision against the New York Yankees in his last turn when he gave up three runs and four hits in seven innings.

WALK-OFFS

1. Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 10 games Friday but his stretch of consecutive games with at least one RBI ended at nine.

2. St. Louis 2B Matt Carpenter had two hits on Friday and has eight multi-hit outings during a 12-game hitting streak.

3. San Francisco C Buster Posey (back) missed the first two games of the series and is 2-for-32 over his last 10 games played.

PREDICTION: Cardinals 5, Giants 3