Around the NL Central: August 20 Edition

News:

On the St. Louis Post Dispatch, numerous Cardinals writers take a look at whether Tony La Russa will return next season.

The Pirates are looking to lock up a couple of their young players long term as they are reportedly close to a deal with outfielder Jose Tabata and are in discussions with second baseman Neil Walker.  An extension for Tabata could come in the next few days.

The Pirates have also placed Paul Maholm on the DL for the first time in his career.

If you haven't heard by now, Jim Hendry is out as GM of the Cubs and Assistant (to the) GM Randy Bush will be serving as interim GM.  Bush says he "knows he's just keeping the seat warm".  Hendry's departure also makes it even more likely that Cryin' Mike Quade will be out of a job as well.

Yesterday's Games:

The Brewers beat the Mets 6-1 yesterday after a long rain delay.  You can find our recap here.

The Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-4 thanks to a walk off Tyler Colvin single that scored Geovany Soto in the tenth inning.  The Cardinals led 4-1 after the fourth inning, but the Cubs scored four unanswered runs to win the game.  For the Cardinals, Yadier Molina hit a two run homer while David Freese had a solo shot.  Jaime Garcia made it to a quality start, going 6.1 innings and giving up three runs while striking out just one.  For the Cubs, Starlin Castro was 2-5 with a run, Geovany Soto was 2-4 with a run and an RBI and Darwin Barney was 2-4 with a solo homerun, a triple and two runs scored.  Randy Wells allowed four runs in seven innings.

The Reds beat the Pirates 11-8.  For the first three innings, it looked like it might be a pitchers duel as no runs were scored.  Then the flood gates opened as the Reds scored 2, 4, 0, 1, 1 and 3 runs in the next six innings while the Pirates scored 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, and 0 runs.  There are plenty of offensive accomplishments, of course, so I'll let you go ahead and click to the box score for these. 

The Astros beat the Giants 6-0.  Two San Francisco errors helped the Astros cause with half of their runs being unearned.  Wandy Rodriguez was great, though, going eight innings and allowing just five hits and two walks while striking out eight.  Time for that long rumored trade perhaps?  Brian Bogusevic hit a solo homer and scored a couple runs while Carlos Corporan went 3-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI.

Updated Standings:

Today's Matchups:

It's Dontrelle Willis (0-3, 4.08) against Charlie Morton (9-6, 3.43) as the Reds face the Pirates.

Randy Wolf (10-8, 3.30) and the Brewers go against former Brewer Chris Capuano (9-11, 4.58) and the Mets.

Edwin Jackson (9-8, 4.04) gets the start against the Cubs, taking on Matt Garza (5-9, 3.80).

20 year old Jordan Lyles (1-7, 5.31) has a tough matchup ahead of him as the Astros go against the Giants and Madison Bumgarner (7-11, 3.49).