Cardinals and Cubs resume rivalry Friday
On Friday, the Chicago Cubs will host the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field. St. Louis is leading the Central with a record of 54-41 and are a game and a half ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, while the Cubs are 11.5 back with a record of 43-53. The Cubs are also 10 games behind the Reds for the Wild Card, so they have a lot of ground to make up. Thanks to favorable match ups with the Cardinals' rotation, this may be their opportunity.
Cards' rotation limited by injuries
With Brad Penny on the disabled list and various other minor injuries throughout the season, the Cardinals have had to bring in a few different pitchers to make starts besides their original rotation. Friday night the Cardinals will send right-handed Jeff Suppan to the mound with hopes that he can get his first win of the season after starting 0-5. When the Cardinals acquired him from the Milwaukee Brewers back in mid June, he came relatively cheap because of his 7.2 ERA, but was also pitching mostly relief for the Brewers. As a starter, he's brought his ERA down to 6.05 in six appearances for the Cardinals but it's still a little too high to have complete confidence in him. His batting against average is also high at .355, which means if the Cubbies get hot, it could be a long night for Suppan.
The Cubs are only 4-3 in the second half, but put up at least 11 runs in three of those games including five earned runs on Philadelphia Phillies' ace Roy Halladay. They're also averaging double-digit hits in those seven games with 11.5 a game which have resulted in some big innings for them, which, as a former relief pitcher with a high ERA, Suppan has proven he doesn't handle well.
Cubs' stars second-half slump
After making a game-saving play to capture for the National League their first All-Star win since the 1996 game in Philadelphia, Marlon Byrd only has six hits in 23 at bats with one home run and two RBI. In order to get the Cubs into some kind of rhythm and get them back in the hunt for the NL Central, Byrd has to get back to hitting somewhere near his team-leading average of .314.
Alfonso Soriano is in a similar situation, with seven hits in 25 at bats. That's right around his average of .270, but he's had three nights with no hits and only went 1 for 5 with one RBI in the Cubs big win over the Astros 14-7. He's the club leader in both home runs with 17 and RBI with 51, so he needs to start hitting and producing runs like he was in the first half, especially against their division-leading rivals.
One batter who has been carrying the load in the second half is the Cubs' 20-year-old shortstop prodigy, Starlin Castro. Since the break, his batting average has jumped from .280 to .296 and 14 hits in 30 at bats with three RBI and three stolen bases. A hot bat like this could be Suppan's worst nightmare.
Cardinals' bats could carry them
Of course, whatever runs the Cubs get out of their lineup, it'd could easily be matched or surpassed by the Cardinals' lineup. With the best 3-4 hitters in the league in Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday, Randy Wells better be nearly perfect to go shut them down. He's 4-7 on the season with a 4.33 ERA and .289 batting against average, so the Cardinals could easily send him to the showers early. They're 10th in the league in home runs with 98 and 12th in hits with 846, and are also on a seven-game winning streak.
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