Tonight's Matchup: Brewers (Peralta) @ Cardinals (Miller)

The Cardinals represent 30% of the Brewers' remaining schedule.

They'll get one of those games out of the way at 7:15 (even the start times in St. Louis are obnoxious) when they face Shelby Miller (3.19 ERA, 3.66 FIP), who might be the NL Rookie of the Year in a world where Yasiel Puig doesn't exist. Miller has been vulnerable lately, though, allowing three runs on six hits over 5.2 innings against the Reds on Wednesday. He threw 95 pitches in that game.

A little more than a month ago Miller left a start against the Dodgers after taking a line drive off his throwing elbow, and since then he's scuffled a bit. He has a 4.45 ERA over 28.1 innings since that incident, compared to 2.89 before. His velocity has stayed around the same over that time, though, topping out at 96 in his last start.

Miller has been very good in three previous starts against the Brewers, posting a combined 1.47 ERA over 18.1 innings with five walks and 21 strikeouts. No current Brewers have faced him ten times or more, but Norichika Aoki is 5-for-9 with a home run while Jean Segura is 0-for-9 with five strikeouts.

He'll face fellow young hurler Wily Peralta (4.51 ERA, 4.26 FIP), who is second on the team with 165.2 innings pitched this season. He beat the Pirates on Wednesday, holding them to three runs on nine hits over six innings with a walk and six strikeouts.

This is Peralta's 30th start of the 2013 season, and he won't turn 25 until May. The only other Brewers in the Miller Park era to start 30 games before their age 25 seasons are Yovani Gallardo (2009 and 2010) and Ben Sheets (2002 and 2003). Before those two, the last three Brewers to do it were Scott Karl (1996), Ricky Bones (1993) and Jaime Navarro (1991).

This is Peralta's third time facing the Cardinals, and the previous two games were not pretty. He has an 11.57 ERA over 9.1 innings against St. Louis this season, allowing 12 earned runs on 22 hits with three walks and nine strikeouts. No current Cardinals have faced him ten times or more, but active members of the team are batting a combined .478/.520/.565 against him.

As of this writing I haven't seen tonight's lineup. If you have, please drop it in the comments.

And in the bullpen:

• Brandon Kintzler pitched one inning (19 pitches) on Sunday.
• Jim Henderson pitched one inning (14 pitches) on Sunday.
• Rob Wooten last pitched on Saturday.
• Jimmy Nelson and Michael Blazek last pitched on Friday.
• Donovan Hand, Burke Badenhop and Michael Gonzalez last pitched on Wednesday.
• Alfredo Figaro might have gotten lost in a hallway.
• Tom Gorzelanny hasn't pitched since being removed from a game with shoulder soreness on September 2.

The temperature got up into the upper 80's in St. Louis today but should cool off a bit tonight. Expect a game time temperature around 88 and falling into the upper 70's as the evening goes along. Winds will be relatively light and blowing from right to left.