Cardinals 1 - 0 Diamondbacks
Final
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It's up to Wainwright in Cards' Central title quest

Sep 28, 2014 - 1:33 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Cardinals are confident they can capture a second straight National League Central title with ace Adam Wainwright on the mound Sunday in the finale of a three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Cardinals had a chance to wrap up the division, but dropped a 5-2 decision to the Diamondbacks Saturday night. They remained one game ahead of Pittsburgh in the NL Central after the Pirates lost in Cincinnati.

Wainwright is shooting for a personal best and has never won 21 games in his career, but has a chance to reach the mark Sunday. Wainwright posted the second 20-win campaign of his career with seven shutout innings of three-hit ball in Monday's 8-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Wainwright, who is 20-9 with a 2.38 earned run average, has won five straight starts with two complete games in that time and is riding a 21 innings scoreless streak. The right-hander and Cy Young Candidate is 11-6 in 18 road starts and 6-4 with a 2.36 ERA in 12 career games (9 starts) against Arizona.

In a 5-0 win over the D-backs on May 20, Wainwright tossed a one-hit shutout and struck out nine batters. He is trying to become the first Cardinals pitcher to win 21 games since Chris Carpenter did it in 2005. That could be an issue because Wainwright is 1-2 with a 2.79 ERA in five games (3 starts) lifetime at Chase Field.

Cardinals starter Lance Lynn allowed two homers in six innings and Seth Maness gave up a three-run homer to Mark Trumbo in the seventh last night. Trumbo had two homers and David Peralta went deep against the Cardinals, losers in four of six games.

"We gotta win the game tomorrow," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "That's it. ... It comes down to game 162. I think that's how the schedule-makers draw it up."

Jhonny Peralta drove in a run and Matt Carpenter posted two hits for the Cardinals in the setback.

St. Louis is playoff bound for the fourth straight season and for the 11th time since 2000.

Meanwhile, the D-backs hope greener pastures are upon them when they close out the 2014 campaign. They fired manager Kirk Gibson a few days ago and won for just the second time in the last 11 tries on Saturday.

The D-backs, who will miss the playoffs for a third straight season, rode the bats of Trumbo and Peralta. Trumbo, a first-year Diamondback, had four RBI and Peralta added three hits and two runs scored.

"I aim to be as consistent as I can be, but I think history shows I can be a tad streaky," Trumbo said. "Sometimes the good times are pretty good, and sometimes ... they're not. It seems like recently it's been going OK."

Trumbo has knocked in 11 runs with five homers in the past six games.

Randall Delgado picked up the win with three scoreless innings of relief and starter Wade Miley pitched well in five innings of work, charged with a pair of runs and six hits. Addison Reed got his 32nd save in the ninth.

The D-backs will close the season with Josh Collmenter on the mound and he is 11-8 with a 3.57 ERA. Collmenter has won three of his last four decisions and defeated Minnesota in Monday's 6-2 finish, as he allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and one walk.

Collmenter, who is 7-4 in 19 games (15 starts) at home, will make his first career start against the Cardinals. He is 2-0 in three relief chances to go along with an 0.84 ERA.

St. Louis swept a three-game set from Arizona at Busch Stadium in May.






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