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Phillies-Cardinals Preview

May 3, 2016 - 5:37 AM The St. Louis Cardinals found some offense in time to end their longest slide of the young season and halt the Philadelphia Phillies' sizzling stretch.

Hoping to begin a run in the positive direction, the Cardinals continue their home set with the Phillies on Tuesday night.

Adam Wainwright allowed all of Philadelphia's runs in the third inning and delivered a tying three-run homer himself as St. Louis (13-13) snapped a four-game skid by rolling to a 10-3 victory on Monday.

"Right now, it's all about wins for me,'' Wainwright said. ''We've got to win the game when I take the mound."

The Cardinals managed six runs in the previous four games, but used three three-run innings and homered five times to end the Phillies' six-game winning streak.

"Is there room for us to get better? Absolutely, in a lot of different areas individually and collectively," St. Louis manager Mike Matheny told MLB's official website. "Just stay the course, but don't overanalyze that stuff."

Aledmys Diaz hit his fifth home run and Randal Grichuk his fourth for the Cardinals, who went deep three times in the previous five contests. Grichuk was 0 for 17 with seven strikeouts in his prior five games before going 2 for 2 in the series opener.

"It feels good to go out there and put good wood on the ball," Grichuk said. "I feel like I have been seeing the ball pretty well, and I just hadn't been making great contact."

Diaz was 1 for 12 in the four before Monday.

Philadelphia pitchers allowed 10 runs and two homers in the previous six games.

"We haven't had one of those games in a while,'' Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. ''It's bound to happen to everyone now and then.''

The Cardinals might not have an easy time generating another big offensive evening against Aaron Nola (1-2, 3.55 ERA), who gave up a run, six hits and struck out 14 while lasting seven innings in each of his last two starts. He yielded two of those hits in a 3-0 victory at Washington on Thursday.

The right-hander credits an improved curveball for his recent success.

"I felt better about that pitch," he said. "I felt like I had a much better feel for it than the last few games."

This will be Nola's first appearance against St. Louis, which sends Michael Wacha (2-1, 3.07) to the mound.

The right-hander allowed four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings of his 2016 debut, but only six over 25 of the next four. Half of those six came on his first two homers given up this season over seven innings of a 3-0 loss at Arizona on Thursday.

''That was his best stuff. You could see that right from the start," Matheny said. "Just had the great fastball and could be overpowering at times."

Wacha was far from his best last season while posting a 7.59 ERA in going 1-1 against the Phillies (15-11).

Maikel Franco and Freddy Galvis are a combined 4 for 8 against Wacha. Franco, however, is hitless in three games and 1 for 17 in the last five.

Teammate Odubel Herrera is batting .370 in 13 games.

St. Louis' Stephen Piscotty is hitting .360 with eight RBIs in his last 12 contests.