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Cardinals-Brewers Preview

Jul 6, 2009 - 9:10 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

St. Louis (45-39) at Milwaukee (43-39), 8:05 p.m. EDT

Although it's only the first week of July, the Milwaukee Brewers view this stretch leading up to the All-Star break as critical to their season.

They were recently replaced atop the NL Central by the St. Louis Cardinals, who also begin a key point in their schedule Tuesday night as they try to hand the Brewers their fifth loss in six games to open a three-game set at Miller Park.

Milwaukee (43-39) closed June with a two-game lead in the Central but has lost four of five this month, including Sunday's 8-2 defeat to the Chicago Cubs, to fall one game back of the Cardinals (45-39).

The Brewers are 4-2 against St. Louis this season, but the Cardinals arrive at Miller Park winners of four of five and are led by a red-hot Albert Pujols. After this series, Milwaukee hosts the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers in its final three games before the break.

"It's crucial," Ryan Braun told the Brewers' official Web site. "We don't want to dig ourselves too big of a hole. It's always important to have some momentum going into the second half to show everybody that we're for real and that we can make a move and improve our ballclub. We need to be headed in the right direction and not the wrong direction in order to do that."

St. Louis is heading in the right direction following Sunday's 10-1 win over Cincinnati, taking two of three at Great American Ball Park.

"Anytime you come into a visiting ballpark in your division and take two of three, all wins are big wins," winning pitcher Chris Carpenter said. "It's nice to start the road trip off by taking the series."

The trip doesn't get any easier for the Cardinals, though. After the series in Milwaukee, St. Louis travels to Chicago for four games against a Cubs team which has one of baseball's best home records.

Pujols, who leads the majors with 31 homers and 82 RBIs, received the most votes for the All-Star game that will be played at Busch Stadium next Tuesday.

The two-time NL MVP is batting .404 (21 for 52) with eight home runs, six doubles, 22 RBIs and a .530 on-base percentage in his last 16 games, but is only 4 for 17 (.235) with two RBIs in six games against the Brewers. He is 2 for 8 with a homer versus Yovani Gallardo (8-5, 2.75 ERA), who starts Tuesday following another stellar performance.

Gallardo gave up one run and five hits with a career-high 12 strikeouts in seven innings against the New York Mets on Wednesday, but had no help in a 1-0 loss. It was the fourth time this season Gallardo did not get one run of support. He has a 1.04 ERA in those contests.

One of those occurrences came against the Cardinals on May 25, as the right-hander allowed two hits in eight innings of a 1-0, 10-inning victory.

Beginning with that outing, Gallardo has a 1.70 ERA in his last eight starts after posting a 3.83 ERA through his first eight. He has 37 strikeouts over his last 26 2-3 innings.

The Cardinals counter with Adam Wainwright (8-5, 3.32), who also is coming off one of his best starts of the season.

Wainwright allowed one run and six hits with a career-high 12 strikeouts in nine innings of a 10-inning, 2-1 win over San Francisco on Wednesday. It was the right-hander's 15th straight time working six or more innings.

He's split two starts against the Brewers this season but was outstanding in both, yielding two runs and seven hits with 16 strikeouts over 15 innings.