St. Louis @ Houston preview
Minute Maid Park
Last Meeting ( Aug 30, 2010 ) St. Louis 0, Houston 3
The St. Louis Cardinals are in danger of falling out of the race for the postseason because they just can’t seem to find a way to defeat sub-.500 teams.
The Cardinals will be looking to snap a three-game slide when they face the Houston Astros again on Tuesday.
St. Louis managed just two hits in Monday’s series opener as J.A. Happ dominated en route to a 3-0 shutout. The loss dropped the Cardinals to 3-10 against teams with sub-.500 records since taking over the lead in the NL Central by sweeping the Cincinnati Reds from Aug. 9-11.
While St. Louis has been struggling, the Reds have been surging, opening up a six-game lead in the division.
The Cardinals have a much better shot at the wild card at this point, as they trail the Philadelphia Phillies by three full games.
Tuesday should be the marquee pitching matchup of the series, with Houston ace Wandy Rodriguez squaring off against struggling former Cy Young award winner Chris Carpenter.
Rodriguez has been brilliant over the last six weeks, taking over for former franchise cornerstone Roy Oswalt as the lone Astros starter that opposing lineups should fear. The Dominican left-hander has allowed two earned runs or less in each off his last seven outings, going 3-1 with a 1.12 ERA, a .199 batting average against and 54 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings. He has lowered his ERA from 5.11 on July 19 to 3.87.
Rodriguez struggled quite a bit in the first half of the season, due in part to some poor outings against St. Louis.
In three starts against the division rivals this season, he owns a 1-2 record and has allowed a total of 12 runs - 11 earned - in 16 1/3 innings. In 18 career appearances - 17 starts - Rodriguez owns a 4-11 record with a 4.30 ERA against the Cardinals.
Carpenter - like most of the St. Louis rotation - is coming off one of his weaker starts of the season.
The right-hander matched a season high by allowing 10 hits while surrendering six runs - three earned - to the lowly Washington Nationals last week. Carpenter did not factor in the decision as St. Louis went on to suffer an 11-10 loss. That outing snapped a string of five straight starts in which he had allowed six hits or less.
Carpenter had only one loss through the first three months of the season, but that came against Houston on May 13, when he was knocked around for four runs and six hits in eight innings.
The 35-year-old exacted some revenge on Aug. 4 when he faced the Astros, holding them to two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings to pick up the victory. He has never had much trouble against Houston overall, posting a 7-4 record with a 2.82 ERA in 16 career starts.