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Diamondbacks-Cardinals Preview

Jun 30, 2010 - 5:41 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Arizona (30-47) at St. Louis (42-34), 2:15 p.m. EDT

Albert Pujols' recent power surge has St. Louis on the verge of its first home sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in almost eight years.

The Cardinals and their slugger look to accomplish that feat in Wednesday's series finale at Busch Stadium.

Pujols homered twice and drove in a season-high five runs in St. Louis' 8-0 rout of Arizona on Tuesday. The two-time reigning NL MVP has three home runs and seven RBIs in his last three games.

He is 6 for 12 with two home runs and nine RBIs in his last three games against the last-place Diamondbacks.

Though Pujols is not having the torrid first half he did a year ago with 32 homers and 87 RBIs at the All-Star break, he's among the NL leaders with 18 homers, 57 RBIs and is batting .312.

"I can say I'm not happy with the way things have gone this season," Pujols said. "But at the same time, if you look at it, it's kind of being greedy if you look at my numbers."

Pujols has four multihomer games this season and 37 overall, tying Stan Musial for the franchise record.

"It's pretty special," Pujols said. "I'm blessed to have the opportunity to be compared sometimes with him."

Pujols will try to help the NL Central-leading Cardinals (43-34) to a third straight win and first home sweep of Arizona since Sept. 23-25, 2002.

St. Louis has pounded out 23 hits in the first two games of this series and received 6 1-3 solid innings from Adam Wainwright on Tuesday.

"Good teams, they exploit your weaknesses," said Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch, whose team has lost 10 of 14.

Former Diamondback Jeff Suppan (0-3, 6.65 ERA) makes his fourth start since the Cardinals acquired him after Milwaukee released the veteran earlier this month.

The right-hander allowed three runs in five innings of a 4-2 loss at Kansas City on Friday to fall to 0-1 with a 3.95 ERA since joining St. Louis.

"From my perspective, my job is to go out there and stay out of the big innings," Suppan told the Cardinals' official website.

Suppan is 3-3 with a 4.06 ERA in nine starts versus Arizona (30-48).

Cole Gillespie had two of the six hits Tuesday for the Diamondbacks, who were shut out for the sixth time.

After hitting his 18th homer in Monday's 6-5 loss, Arizona slugger Mark Reynolds went 0 for 3 on Tuesday. Reynolds is batting .212, but is 10 for 25 with three home runs and nine RBIs against the Cardinals this season.

Arizona will call up right-hander Barry Enright from Double-A Mobile to make his major league debut Wednesday. The move comes following the team's decision to push scheduled starter Edwin Jackson to Friday after his 149-pitch no-hitter against Tampa Bay last Friday.

Enright went 4-1 with a 2.88 ERA in 14 starts for Mobile this season.

"We think he's the most deserving," Hinch told the Diamondbacks' official website. "We've always preached that once you get to Double-A you're a true option."