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Athletics-Cardinals Preview

Jun 19, 2010 - 5:53 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Oakland (33-35) at St. Louis (36-30), 7:15 p.m. EDT

After enduring an awful stretch, the St. Louis Cardinals are hoping the worst is over for Matt Holliday.

The slugger looks to build on one of his best performances of the season and help the NL Central-leading Cardinals win for the fourth time in five games Saturday night when they continue a three-game set against the slumping Oakland Athletics.

Many expected St. Louis (37-30) to have one of the best one-two punches in baseball with three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols hitting third and Holliday batting cleanup, but that dangerous combination hasn't really materialized.

An unproductive Holliday was moved to the No. 2 slot Monday, and finally showed signs of breaking out in Friday's 6-4 win over the Athletics.

Holliday homered - just his second since May 23 - and drove in a season-best three runs to help the Cardinals move one-half game past Cincinnati atop the division.

"It's always nice to help the team win," said Holliday, who ended a 43 at-bat RBI drought. "This is a frustrating game and a humbling game, and so you just try to do the best you can."

Despite the strong showing, Holliday is still sixth on St. Louis with 28 RBIs in 65 games. The three-time All-Star had 55 RBIs in 63 games for the Cardinals last season after being traded from Oakland on July 24.

St. Louis is hoping for more stellar games from Holliday, now batting in front of Pujols.

"With Mr. Scary hitting behind him, he should get some pitches to hit," manager Tony La Russa said. "It creates a lot of problems for the other side and that's what you try to do."

Pujols is batting .371 with four homers in 70 at-bats against scheduled starter Ben Sheets (2-6, 4.93 ERA), while Holliday is 3 for 8 against him.

Sheets hasn't pitched since allowing five runs and eight hits in six innings of last Saturday's 5-4 loss to San Francisco. The right-hander has recorded a 5.00 ERA in losing his three starts this month, and hasn't won since defeating Tampa Bay on May 8.

Although Sheets is struggling, he has pitched into the sixth inning in each of his last eight starts, an encouraging sign for a pitcher who sat out all last season while recovering from right elbow surgery.

"That's where I am right now," Sheets said. "I'm starting to feel better toward the end of games so I'll just keep pushing forward. It's a long season."

Sheets, who spent his first eight years in the majors with Milwaukee, is quite familiar with the Cardinals, but hasn't had much success against them. In 26 career starts against St. Louis, Sheets is 6-14 with a 4.05 ERA, his most losses against any team.

Oakland (33-36) has lost six of seven to fall a season-worst three games below .500.

Rajai Davis matched his career high with four hits Friday, and is batting .386 during a 10-game hitting streak. It won't be easy to extend this run against Adam Wainwright (9-4, 2.41), who has posted a 1.96 ERA in winning his six home starts this season.

Wainwright allowed three runs and six hits in seven innings of Monday's 9-3 win over Seattle, the 12th time in 14 starts the right-hander gave up three runs or fewer.

Wainwright, 3-1 with a 3.67 ERA in four starts against the AL since last season, will face the A's for the first time.