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Braves-Cardinals Preview

Apr 27, 2010 - 6:07 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Atlanta (8-10) at St. Louis (11-7), 8:15 p.m. EDT

A late rally and heroics from an unlikely source helped the St. Louis Cardinals continue another strong start at Busch Stadium. They also extended the Atlanta Braves' season-high losing streak in the process.

Chris Carpenter could be a major reason both trends continue.

The Cardinals' ace looks to help them to a sixth win in eight home games Tuesday night when they face the Braves, who are trying to avoid their longest slide in almost four years.

St. Louis (12-7) erased a three-run, sixth-inning deficit in Monday's 4-3 win. Yadier Molina completed the rally with an RBI double in the eighth to open this four-game set.

"I love it," said Molina, a two-time Gold Glove catcher who is hitting .250 with 11 RBIs. "Every time something like that happens, it makes me happy. We showed we're going to play nine innings hard."

Molina's heroics improved the Cardinals to 5-2 at home, and they've won 15 of 20 in April over two seasons.

While St. Louis is off to another strong start at home, the Braves (8-11) have dropped six in a row and are trying to avoid their first seven-game slide since losing 10 straight from June 11-22, 2006.

Carpenter (2-0, 3.60 ERA) has thrived in his last 13 starts at Busch, going 9-2 with a 2.30 ERA. The right-hander won his only start there this season on April 16, yielding one unearned run while striking out a season-high 10 in seven innings of a 4-3 win over the New York Mets.

He matched that strikeout total in seven innings Wednesday while allowing three runs and six hits while not getting a decision in a 9-4 win at Arizona.

Carpenter, though, was hit hard in his last home start against the Braves, giving up seven runs in six innings of a 9-2 loss Sept. 13.

Atlanta's offense, however, has hit just .229 while scoring nine runs during the losing streak.

Martin Prado continues to be a rare bright spot, ranking among baseball's leaders with a .392 batting average after going 1 for 5 Monday. The third baseman has been held without a hit only twice this season.

"Right now, I don't feel like any kind of numbers matter," said Prado, who is 10 for 32 in seven games at St. Louis. "Now it's just like everything is going the wrong way for us. It stinks, but we've got to keep moving on."

The Braves will give the ball to Derek Lowe (3-1, 5.24), who has benefited from an abundance of offensive support, but is now looking to rebound from his first loss of the season.

The right-hander surrendered five runs and six hits in five innings of an 8-3 loss to Philadelphia on Thursday, ending a personal three-game winning streak that saw him get 21 total runs of support.

Lowe is familiar with getting a great deal of help from the lineup on the road, too. He's received 36 total runs to help him go 4-0 with a 4.13 ERA in his last five starts away from Atlanta.

Lowe has been ineffective in four starts at St. Louis, losing all of them with a 7.52 ERA. Overall, he's 1-6 with a 6.69 ERA in seven meetings.