Ah, the Cardinals again.
Current Series
3 game series vs Cardinals @ Miller Park
St. Louis Cardinals Monday, Sep 6, 2010, 1:10 PM CDT Jake Westbrook vs Yovani Gallardo Partly cloudy. Winds blowing from right to left field at 15-20 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 75.
Complete Coverage > | ||
| Tue 09/07 | 7:10 PM CDT | |
| Wed 09/08 | 7:10 PM CDT | |
Join us after the jump for today's pitching matchup, lineup and everything else the Cardinals deem "disrespectful to the game."
Yovani Gallardo (3.86 ERA, 3.05 FIP) is trying to right the ship after a very tough stretch of starts. Since returning from the DL on July 22, Gallardo has a 7.23 ERA and 55 hits allowed in 42.1 innings, with 49 strikeouts. He's only completed seven innings once since June, and lately he's having issues with the long ball: He's allowed four in his last three starts after going six starts without giving one up.
Gallardo has faced the Cardinals twice this season and neither outcome has been pretty. On April 10 he had a disaster start, allowing six earned runs on five hits in five innings, and on July 4 he allowed six runs (only one earned) on five hits in 2.2 innings before leaving with a strained oblique. Five Cardinals have faced him ten times or more:
| Player | PA | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS |
| Albert Pujols | 18 | .333 | .444 | .533 | .978 |
| Randy Winn | 16 | .200 | .250 | .267 | .517 |
| Yadier Molina | 15 | .300 | .533 | .800 | 1.333 |
| Skip Schumaker | 12 | .182 | .250 | .273 | .523 |
| Colby Rasmus | 11 | .444 | .545 | .778 | 1.323 |
He'll face Jake Westbrook (4.51 ERA, 4.27 FIP), making his seventh start for the Cardinals since coming over from the Indians at the trade deadline. Since coming to the NL, Westbrook's strikeout numbers are way up (8.1 per nine innings, up from 5.0 career) and his walks are way down (1.4 per nine innings, down from 2.8 career). Five of his six starts as a Cardinal have been of the quality variety, and he held the Astros to three runs on nine hits over seven innings a week ago today.
Westbrook's fastball averages out at 90.7 mph, and he throws it 58.1% of the time. He'll also mix in a slider, change and cutter (all between 11 and 16.2% of pitches). This year the slider and change have been above average, and the fastball and cutter have been below. No Brewers have faced him more than four times, but Craig Counsell and Carlos Gomez are both 1-for-4 against him with a single.
Via Adam McCalvy, here's today's lineup:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart RF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Lorenzo Cain CF
Alcides Escobar SS
Jonathan Lucroy C
Yovani Gallardo P
And in the bullpen:
Zach Braddock pitched .1 innings (3 pitches) yesterday, and also pitched on Saturday.
John Axford pitched two innings (35 pitches) yesterday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched one inning (26 pitches) Saturday.
Kameron Loe faced two batters (11 pitches) Saturday.
Todd Coffey, Jeremy Jeffress and Mike McClendon haven't pitched since Wednesday.
Manny Parra hasn't pitched since Tuesday.
Trevor Hoffman hasn't pitched since a week ago today.
Enjoy the game!