• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Cardinals-Blue Jays Preview

Jun 23, 2010 - 4:26 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

St. Louis (38-31) at Toronto (38-32), 7:07 p.m. EDT

After enduring one of the worst slumps of his career, Matt Holliday is suddenly in the midst of one of his best stretches.

Holliday, who has nearly doubled his season's home run total in the last five days, looks to extend his hitting tear and help the NL Central-leading Cardinals win for the sixth time in eight games Wednesday night when they continue their road series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Heading into last Friday's meeting with Oakland, Holliday had one home run in 22 games and had gone a career-worst 43 at-bats without an RBI. The three-time All-Star outfielder busted out of his slump by hitting a two-run homer in his first at-bat against his former team and hasn't slowed down since.

Holliday finished a triple short of the cycle in Tuesday's 9-4 series-opening win over Toronto, and is 11 for 17 with five homers, two doubles and 10 RBIs in his last four games. He had six home runs in his first 64 contests of the season for the Cardinals (39-31).

"He's done it for seven years," manager Tony La Russa said. "You're going to have times when he goes on a binge and then he goes sluggish, but even when he goes sluggish he's getting his knock. He's just a very tough out, a proven hitter."

Holliday, who has never homered in five consecutive games, is the only St. Louis player with any prior experience against scheduled Toronto starter Ricky Romero (6-3, 3.08 ERA), going 1 for 3 with two strikeouts against him.

The Cardinals, winners of five of seven, counter with Chris Carpenter (8-1, 2.83), who will make his second career start against his former team.

Carpenter was 49-50 in six years with Toronto from 1997-2002, never winning more than 12 games in a season. The right-hander signed as a free agent with St. Louis prior to the 2004 season after sitting out all of 2003 while recovering from right shoulder surgery, and has since emerged as one of the top pitchers in the game.

The two-time All-Star and 2005 NL Cy Young Award winner is 76-25 in his seven-plus years with the Cardinals, and is well on his way to his fifth 15-win season.

Carpenter, last season's NL Cy Young runner-up, is coming off a somewhat shaky outing. He allowed four runs - all in the second - and a season-high 10 hits in seven innings of Friday's 6-4 win over the A's.

On the bright side, Carpenter didn't give up a home run. He has already yielded 11 homers this season after giving up seven in all of 2009.

Trying to keep the Blue Jays (38-33) inside the park could be tough, as they lead the majors with 108 homers. Jose Bautista hit two Tuesday to increase his major league-leading total to 20 for Toronto, which has lost nine of 14.

Carpenter didn't have any problems in his lone outing against his former team, throwing a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts in a 7-0 victory June 14, 2005.

Romero allowed an unearned run, five hits and three walks in six innings of a 7-1 win at San Diego on Wednesday, moving to 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in his last four starts.

The left-hander has pitched his best at Rogers Centre this year, going 4-1 with a 1.69 ERA in six home starts.

Romero is 3-1 with a 2.53 ERA in five career starts against the NL. This will be his first outing versus the Cardinals.