Milwaukee @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 26, 2015 ) St. Louis 3, Milwaukee 6

The St. Louis Cardinals own the best record in baseball and are especially dominant at home, where they continued a nine-game stay by taking two of three from the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend. The Cardinals will try to pad their home record and their National League Central lead when they host the major league-worst Milwaukee Brewers in the opener of a three-game set on Monday.

St. Louis (33-17) improved to 20-6 in its own stadium with Sunday’s 3-1 victory, and the Cardinals’ staff is allowing an average of 2.5 runs in the first six games of the homestand. St. Louis’ offense got five RBIs from shortstop Jhonny Peralta over the weekend, including all three in Sunday’s win as he moved up in the batting order with Matt Holliday ailing. The Brewers (17-34) dropped two of three in their first trip to St. Louis in April and will be playing on tired legs after snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 17-inning win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday. Milwaukee burned through nine pitchers in the marathon before Martin Maldonado ended it with a solo blast.

TV: 8:10 p.m. ESPN, FSN Wisconsin (Milwaukee), FSN Midwest (St. Louis)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Brewers RH Mike Fiers (1-5, 4.53 ERA) vs. Cardinals LH Jaime Garcia (1-1, 3.46)

Fiers is moving up a day to take over the spot originally set for Matt Garza, who was pressed into action on Sunday and worked five scoreless innings to earn the win. The 29-year-old has been unable to complete six innings in any of his last three outings and absorbed a loss to San Francisco on Wednesday, when he was reached for two runs and eight hits in five frames. The Florida native matched a season low with four innings and gave up a season-high nine hits against St. Louis on April 26, but limited the damage to two runs (one earned) in that start without factoring in the decision.

Garcia is making his third start since rejoining the team following his long recovery from thoracic outlet surgery and is looking to post back-to-back wins. The 28-year-old walked five in his first start but cleaned up the control against Arizona on Tuesday and surrendered four runs – three earned – and eight hits in six innings. Garcia is 6-3 with a 3.26 ERA in 13 career games – 12 starts – against Milwaukee.

WALK-OFFS

1. Holliday, who has reached base safely in 44 straight games to start the season, sat out two of the three games over the weekend due to illness and is day-to-day.

2. Milwaukee SS Jean Segura doubled and tripled among four hits in eight at-bats on Sunday.

3. St. Louis RF Jason Heyward is 6-for-12 in the last four games.

PREDICTION: Cardinals 7, Brewers 2