St. Louis @ Kansas City preview

Last Meeting ( May 23, 2015 ) St. Louis 2, Kansas City 3

Although five games provides a pretty small sample size, it might be fair to say the St. Louis Cardinals will be happy to get away from interleague play after this weekend. The Cardinals look to stay undefeated when they send Michael Wacha to the mound as they try to avoid a three-game sweep in Kansas City when they face the Royals on Sunday.

St. Louis dropped two of three at home to Detroit last weekend and hasn’t enjoyed any more success against the Tigers’ American League Central rival, watching Kendrys Morales club two homers and account for all the offense in a 5-0 series-opening win. Kansas City sent the Cardinals to their season-high third straight setback on Saturday, using a two-run blast by Alex Gordon to post a 3-2 victory in a game that was called in the sixth inning due to rain. The weather is expected to remain a factor in Sunday’s series finale, but little has cooled off the Royals’ pitching lately. Kansas City, which owns the best home record in the AL at 17-6 and the best overall mark in the majors at 28-14 thanks in part to an AL-best 3.16 ERA, has tossed three shutouts and given up a total of three runs during its five-game winning streak.

TV: 2:10 p.m. ET, MLBN, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), FSN Kansas City

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Michael Wacha (6-0, 2.13 ERA) vs. Royals RH Yordano Ventura (3-3, 4.56)

Outside of surrendering a two-run homer to Daniel Murphy, Wacha allowed no more runs and only three other hits over seven innings en route to 10-2 rout of the New York Mets on Tuesday. The 19th overall selection in the 2012 draft has yet to give up more than six hits in any of his eight outings and yielded two or fewer runs in seven of those turns. Wacha has kept the Royals in check in two career starts (0.77 WHIP, .191 batting average against) but is 0-1 with a 2.77 ERA.

Ventura snapped a five-start winless streak with a seven-inning gem on Tuesday, holding Cincinnati to four singles while fanning six in an 88-pitch outing. It was a reversal of fortune for the 23-year-old Dominican, who had been tagged for five runs in each of his three losses during the drought. Ventura also was in fine form in his only other career start versus the Cardinals last June, yielding two runs over six frames to get the win over Wacha in Kansas City.

WALK-OFFS

1. St. Louis LF Matt Holliday was hit by a pitch on Saturday to extend his on-base streak to 40 games – two shy of matching Albert Pujols’ club record to start a season set in 2008.

2. Cardinals C Yadier Molina’s RBI grounder in the second inning on Saturday ended a streak of 27 scoreless frames by Kansas City’s starting pitchers.

3. Gordon needs two RBIs to reach 500 for his career.

PREDICTION: Cardinals 3, Royals 1