Phillies-Cardinals Preview
The Philadelphia Phillies are in position to match their longest win streak since 2012, and facing a pitcher with one of baseball's worst ERAs could help their cause. The struggling Adam Wainwright, however, has fared well against the Phillies in the past and will start Monday night for the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a four-game set at Busch Stadium. Philadelphia (15-10) has won six straight and nine of 10 as it seeks to match a seven-game win streak from Sept. 5-12, 2012. "We're having fun out there and everything is coming together," catcher Cameron Rupp said. The Phillies have been one of baseball's biggest surprises while the Cardinals (12-13) have been inconsistent. St. Louis is one defeat shy of its first five-game slide since losing seven straight from July 26-31, 2013. Wainwright (1-3, 7.16 ERA), ironically, was the last Cardinals pitcher to win after yielding four runs over 5 1/3 innings Wednesday in an 11-4 rout at Arizona. He added a three-run triple at the plate. The right-hander has struggled since missing most of last season with an Achilles tendon injury. Wainwright, who has never had an ERA over 3.94 in a full season, failed to strike out more than three batters in four straight starts for the first time since 2007 before he struck out five Diamondbacks. He is 5-2 with a 2.65 ERA in 10 career starts versus the Phillies. St. Louis native Ryan Howard has faced him the most among Philadelphia hitters, going 6 for 24. The Phillies have a 1.61 ERA during their win streak, including nearly spotless relief work. Hector Neris allowed a solo homer in the ninth of Sunday's 2-1 victory over Cleveland to snap the bullpen's streak of 20 straight scoreless innings. Pitching was the story in three weekend one-run victories over the Indians. Vince Velasquez tossed two-hit ball over six innings Sunday. "Our offense isn't explosive by any means so for us to be successful, we have to win the close games and we understand that," reliever David Hernandez said. The Phillies are hoping slugger Maikel Franco breaks out of a seven-game homerless drought in which he is 4 for 26. He has a team-high 14 RBIs. Center fielder Odubel Herrera had his 11-game hit streak snapped Sunday by going 0 for 3. Herrera, second in the majors with 23 walks, batted .385 with 11 runs scored over his run. Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson (2-1, 3.81) comes off his best outing of the season, a seven-inning stint in which he struck out eight in Wednesday's 3-0 victory at Washington. The veteran right-hander has not faced St. Louis since 2011. The available Cardinals hitter he has faced the most is Brandon Moss, who is 1 for 6 in this matchup. Moss went deep for the team-high sixth time Sunday for all the offense St. Louis mustered in a 6-1 defeat to the Nationals. The Cardinals have totaled six runs while batting .206 in this four-game slide. Yadier Molina went 0 for 3, snapping an 11-game hitting streak in which he batted .378 and an 18-game streak of reaching base safely. The Cardinals took five of seven from the Phillies in 2015. |