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Cardinals-Padres Preview

May 24, 2010 - 8:58 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

St. Louis (26-19) at San Diego (26-18), 10:05 p.m. EDT

While most expected the St. Louis Cardinals to be in the thick of another NL Central title race, the San Diego Padres' position atop the NL West is far more surprising.

The key for both teams' success has been their solid pitching, and each will send their top pitcher to the hill Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series at Petco Park.

Adam Wainwright looks to lead the Cardinals to their sixth win in eight games when he squares off against Jon Garland, who is trying to win six straight decisions for the first time in four years.

St. Louis (26-19), coming off Sunday's 6-5, 10-inning win over the Los Angeles Angels to wrap up a 5-2 homestand, has won four of the last six Central crowns. With Albert Pujols mired in a slump, the Cardinals have relied on their strong pitching, which ranks second in the league with a 3.07 ERA.

Wainwright (6-2, 2.49) has been instrumental to that success with the league's ninth-best ERA.

The right-hander allowed two runs and six hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings of Thursday's 4-2 win over Florida, the third time in four starts he yielded two runs or fewer.

In his only start against San Diego, Wainwright allowed eight hits in seven shutout innings of a 9-2 victory in St. Louis on Aug. 14.

The Cardinals took six of seven from the Padres last season, as San Diego finished in fourth place in the West.

The Padres (26-18), though, are no longer looking like pushovers.

Led by an NL-best 2.98 ERA, San Diego has a one-game lead over Los Angeles in the division.

After emerging star Mat Latos led the Padres to an 8-1 win over Seattle on Sunday, Garland (5-2, 2.38) looks to give them another solid performance.

Garland, seventh in the NL in ERA, struggled in a 10-5 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday. He allowed four runs with season highs of nine hits and 117 pitches over five innings but still moved to 5-0 with a 1.89 ERA in his last six starts.

The right-hander hasn't won six straight decisions since going 8-0 during a 10-start span for the Chicago White Sox in 2006.

Garland, who signed with the Padres in January, is enjoying pitching at his new home, going 2-0 with a 1.08 ERA in four starts. He hopes pitching in San Diego will give him better luck against the Cardinals, as he recorded an 8.38 ERA in losing two starts against them last season with Arizona.

Pujols had two homers in five at-bats against Garland in 2009 but hasn't found much success at the plate lately.

The three-time league MVP is 3 for 20 in his last six games and doesn't have an RBI in his last nine. A .333 career hitter, Pujols is batting .303 and in danger of having his average dip below .300 this late in the season for the first time since June 27, 2007. He finished that year batting .327.

"I don't think it's fair to say I'm struggling when a guy's hitting over .300," Pujols said. "Obviously, I spoil you guys too much hitting .350 every month and hitting a bunch of home runs with a bunch of RBIs."

Breaking out of his funk against San Diego might not be so easy.

Despite the Cardinals' dominance over the Padres last season, Pujols hit .231 with a homer, double and three RBIs. He is 4 for 24 (.167) with a solo homer in his last six games at Petco.