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Giants-Cardinals Preview

Aug 22, 2010 - 3:55 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

San Francisco (69-54) at St. Louis (65-54), 2:15 p.m. EDT

Now that they've ended their longest losing stretch of the season, the St. Louis Cardinals look for a better effort than the last time they faced San Francisco's Barry Zito.

The Cardinals hope to close an already disappointing homestand with a second straight win and series victory over the Giants on Sunday.

Chris Carpenter outpitched Tim Lincecum, and newcomer Pedro Feliz had two hits with two RBIs as St. Louis (66-54) snapped its five-game skid with a 5-1 win over San Francisco on Saturday.

Trying to catch first-place Cincinnati in the NL Central and Philadelphia in the wild card, the Cardinals are 2-5 on an eight-game homestand where they lost two of three to the lowly Cubs and swept in a two-game set by Milwaukee before losing the opener with San Francisco.

"We just need to win some ballgames," Carpenter said.

Feliz helped the Cardinals get back on track Saturday after they totaled seven runs in their previous three contests. The former Giant is 4 for 8 since being acquired from Houston on Thursday.

Albert Pujols singled Saturday and is batting .419 in his last 18 games. The Cardinals slugger is 5 for 13 with two home runs and a double against Zito (8-7, 3.56 ERA), who allowed three hits and struck out 10 in eight innings of a 2-0 home win to earn his first victory over the Cardinals on April 24.

"I (don't) want to give them any space to breathe, any space to get a foot in the door," said Zito, 1-4 with a 4.24 ERA in six starts against the Cardinals. "Slam the door."

Zito hopes for another strong outing against the Cardinals while trying to improve on his 0-2 mark and 8.10 ERA in three starts at St. Louis.

Though Zito is 0-3 with a 3.69 ERA in his last six starts, he's been given an average of 1.62 runs of support during that span. The left-hander wasn't as sharp in his last start, allowing four runs and eight hits in five innings of a 9-3 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday.

St. Louis counters with rookie Jaime Garcia (10-6, 2.58), who has posted a 4.41 ERA while losing two of his last three starts. He allowed three runs and walked three in six innings of a 3-2 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday for his second straight home loss to fall to 4-3 with a 1.76 ERA in 11 starts at Busch Stadium.

"All I try to focus on is control what I can control," Garcia said.

In his only appearance versus San Francisco, Garcia gave up four runs in six innings of a 4-1 loss April 23.

San Francisco's Jose Guillen is 11 for 26 with seven RBIs in his last seven games against St. Louis after going 2 for 4 with an RBI on Saturday. The veteran outfielder is 10 for 24 in seven games since being acquired from Kansas City last week.

The Giants (69-55), one-game behind the Phillies for the wild-card lead, have lost four of six.