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Mets-Cardinals Preview

Apr 16, 2010 - 12:34 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

New York (2-6) at St. Louis (6-2), 8:15 p.m. EDT

The St. Louis Cardinals have taken the first two games of each of their first three series before failing to finish off a sweep.

To get off to a good start against the New York Mets, they'll need Chris Carpenter to put his last start behind him.

Carpenter tries to bounce back from one of his worst outings in a Cardinals uniform Friday night in his 2010 debut at Busch Stadium, where the Mets were swept in their only stop last season.

Carpenter (1-0, 5.73 ERA) followed All-Star seasons in 2005 and 2006 with two all but lost to injury, but after having the NL's lowest ERA in 2009, St. Louis (6-3) was convinced the right-hander had plenty more good starts left.

He pitched well in an opening day win at Cincinnati but was off his game Sunday at Milwaukee. Carpenter allowed seven runs over five innings, giving up three homers for the first time since 2006, in the Cardinals' 8-7 loss.

Carpenter allowed seven homers in 192 2-3 innings last season, but has already yielded five in his first 11 innings.

"I guess I gave up a couple of homers and it's turned into chaos," said Carpenter, who's 1-2 with a 3.60 ERA in three starts against the Mets (3-6) with St. Louis. "It's going to happen."

Manager Tony La Russa isn't panicking over the former Cy Young Award winner's mediocre start.

"He just wasn't as sharp," La Russa said after the loss in Milwaukee. "Even (on opening day), he was good, but he's capable of being sharper. But as long as he's healthy and competing, everything will fall into place."

Carpenter's start against the Brewers came in the series finale after St. Louis had won the first two, and it repeated its win-two, lose-one pattern against Houston. The Cardinals outscored the Astros 7-1 in victories Monday and Wednesday, but struck out a season-high 12 times in Thursday's 5-1 loss.

"We've got to take tougher at-bats and not make it so easy," La Russa said. "Those are a lot of strikeouts for us."

Baserunners may be easier to come by Friday against Oliver Perez (0-1, 6.35), who is second in walks per nine innings (5.09) in the majors over the past five seasons.

Perez walked four over 5 2-3 innings Saturday against Washington, giving up four runs in a 4-3 loss. The wild left-hander seemed oddly unconcerned by a mediocre outing against one of the NL's lesser offenses, though.

"I did everything I can, but I have to be very happy with that," Perez said. "I feel very good about the pitching, but we didn't win."

Perez is 0-1 with an 8.38 ERA in two starts at the new Busch Stadium, where he's issued seven walks in 9 2-3 innings.

He's had varied results against St. Louis' two best hitters. Pujols is hitting .393 with three homers in 28 at-bats against Perez, while Matt Holliday is 2 for 16 with four strikeouts.

The Mets' pattern in their first two series was to win the opener while dropping the last two, but they did the opposite in their first road series. Colorado outscored New York 17-8 in winning the first two games in Denver, but Mike Pelfrey's seven strong innings allowed the Mets to leave with a 5-0 win Thursday.

"You kind of felt like we were kind in control the whole game," said Jeff Francoeur, who had two hits to improve his team-leading average to .438. "That was a fun game."

David Wright is hitting .475 with three homers against St. Louis over the past two seasons.