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Giants-Cardinals Preview

Aug 21, 2010 - 5:14 AM By BRETT HUSTON STATS Writer

San Francisco (68-54) at St. Louis (65-53), 7:15 p.m. EDT

Tim Lincecum has pitched nothing like the San Francisco Giants ace this month, suffering three straight losses for the first time in his career.

There's nothing wrong with the way Chris Carpenter has looked lately, but the same can't be said about his St. Louis Cardinals.

The former NL Cy Young Award winners match up for the first time Saturday night at Busch Stadium, where Lincecum hopes to continue his dominance of the Cardinals by handing them a sixth consecutive overall loss.

Lincecum (11-7, 3.62 ERA) and Carpenter (13-4, 2.95) have won three of the last five NL Cy Youngs, but the two-time reigning winner won't be making it three in a row. Lincecum is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA this month

His last two outings have been particularly rough. The right-hander gave up six runs over four innings Aug. 10 in an 8-6 loss to the Cubs, then surrendered six runs in 3 2-3 innings of Sunday's 8-2 defeat to San Diego.

"You get frustrated when things don't go your way, or the way they have been," Lincecum told the Giants' official website. "You've just got to keep coming to the field every day and working with a purpose and knowing that it's going to come back, and that's pretty much what I'm trying to get to."

Lincecum has been turning to video reviews and long discussions with pitching coach Dave Righetti to try to solve his problems, perhaps the greatest of which is the decline of his fastball velocity from the mid-90s to the high-80s.

"My fastball's kind of all over the place right now," Lincecum said. "Just getting that down-and-away fastball, that's what I have to get back."

He's facing the right opponent to help him get back on track. Lincecum is 5-0 with a 1.54 ERA in five starts against the Cardinals (65-54), and has tossed 16 consecutive scoreless innings at Busch.

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday have hit a combined .326 (14 for 43) against Lincecum, but Skip Schumaker (6 for 16) is the only Cardinal to homer.

St. Louis could really use a breakout game at the plate as it continues to slide in the NL Central. It's averaged 3.2 runs in five consecutive losses, including a 6-3 defeat in Friday's series opener.

San Francisco (69-54) trails Philadelphia by one game in the wild-card race, while the Cardinals - who haven't lost six straight since a seven-game slide Sept. 10-17, 2008 - fell three back. They trail Cincinnati by four games in the division.

"It's not just our offense, we need to play better," said Pujols, who hit his major league-high eighth homer in August. "There are lot of different things that we aren't doing the right way, and you can't win like that.

"There's no tomorrow, we need to win games."

Carpenter was 4-0 with a 1.79 ERA in his first six starts following the All-Star break, but was only average last Saturday against the Cubs. He gave up three runs and six hits - two homers - over six innings of a 3-2 loss.

"Mechanically I wasn't as solid as I've been, so I'll work on it and get ready to go again," Carpenter told the Cardinals' official website.

Carpenter is 3-1 with a 3.98 ERA in six starts against San Francisco. He'll want to be careful against left fielder Pat Burrell, who's 5 for 18 (.278) with four homers versus him.

This is the first matchup of former NL Cy Young winners since San Diego's Jake Peavy and Arizona's Brandon Webb squared off April 27, 2008.