St. Louis @ Houston preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 20, 2012 ) Houston 4, St. Louis 5

12.00 The St. Louis Cardinals are on a hot streak with nine games remaining and visiting the lowly Houston Astros for Monday’s opener of a three-game series should help them move closer to sewing up a National League wild-card spot. St. Louis has won six of seven games and holds a 2 1/2-game lead over the equally hot Milwaukee Brewers for the second wild-card. The Cardinals are 9-3 against the Astros this season, including 6-0 since Tony DeFrancesco became Houston’s interim manager.

The Astros took two of three from the Pittsburgh Pirates over the weekend and 20 percent of their victories this season have come in September. Houston (50-102) has gone 10-11 this month after winning just eight total games in July and August. Cardinals first baseman Allen Craig had three hits in Sunday’s victory over the Chicago Cubs for his sixth multihit outing in 10 games. Craig is batting .412 with six homers and 24 RBIs in 20 games against the Astros. St. Louis closer Jason Motte has six saves in the last seven games and 40 for the season, joining Bruce Sutter (1984), Lee Smith (1991-93) and Jason Isringhausen as the only Cardinals to reach the 40-save mark.

TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Midwest (St. Louis), Fox Sports Houston

PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Lance Lynn (16-7, 3.79 ERA) vs. Astros LH Fernando Abad (0-5, 5.11)

Lynn has won back-to-back starts and allowed just one run since returning to the rotation. He blanked Houston on three hits over 6 1/3 innings Wednesday and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in his previous turn. Lynn is 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA in two starts against the Astros. He has a 3-0 career mark and 1.46 ERA in four appearances (three starts) against Houston.

Abad has lost five consecutive starts and has pitched through five innings just once. He lost to the Cardinals on Tuesday when he gave up three runs and six hits in five innings. Abad had a 3.86 ERA in 30 relief appearances but has a 6.53 ERA in his five starts. He is 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA in six career appearances (one start) against St. Louis.

WALK-OFFS

1. St. Louis OF Carlos Beltran didn’t start Sunday due to an illness but had a pinch-hit single and figures to be back in the lineup for the opener.

2. Astros 2B Jose Altuve left Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh with groin soreness and likely won’t be in the starting lineup.

3. Cardinals C Yadier Molina missed Sunday’s game with back spasms but expects to be in the lineup.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Courier New"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}