Diamondbacks 7 - 6 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Upton, Diamondbacks seek another win over Cardinals

Jul 8, 2011 - 2:59 PM (Sports Network) - Arizona's lone All-Star representative Justin Upton has been seeing the ball well on the road lately and will try to power his team to another win tonight over the St. Louis Cardinals in the continuation of a four-game series from Busch Stadium.

Upton belted a two-run homer in Thursday's 4-1 win in the series opener and has gone deep three times in his last eight games. The outfielder has hit safely in 14 of his last 20 road contests, batting .295 in that span, and owns two home runs on the D'Backs' current 10-game trek. Upton didn't lose a beat either with a pair of rain delays.

"We stayed down in the cage area and in the dugout so we wouldn't get too laid back," Upton said about the delays. "We were prepared to play."

Ryan Roberts and Sean Burroughs both knocked in runs and starting pitcher Joe Saunders threw five shutout innings and allowed one hit for the win. Saunders had his night cut short due to a 50-minute rain delay in the sixth inning. Four relievers held the Cardinals to a run the rest of the way, with David Hernandez posting his sixth save in a scoreless ninth inning.

Arizona owns a National League-best 33-20 record since mid-May and sits two games behind San Francisco for the NL West lead. The club has won four of six games and is 4-3 so far on the road trip which concludes this weekend before the All-Star Game on Tuesday from Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks.

Ian Kennedy was hoping to earn the final vote for the NL All-Star roster and play in front of the home crowd, but was beat out by Phillies outfielder Shane Victorino. Kennedy was grateful for the opportunity.

"This whole process has been a lot of fun," Kennedy said. "You realize how many people supported me and I just want to thank everybody for voting."

Arizona hopes Kennedy can put a rough start behind him when he toes the rubber this evening. Kennedy was hammered for seven runs and a season-high 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 7-2 loss at Oakland on Sunday. He struck out six and walked two batters in falling to 8-3 in 18 starts with a 3.38 ERA.

Kennedy, a right-hander, is 5-1 with a 3.23 ERA in eight starts on the road and will face St. Louis for the second time this season and in his career. In his worst outing of the season back on April 13 versus the Cardinals, Kennedy lasted a season-low three innings and was reached for nine runs and seven hits with only one strikeout and two walks.

St. Louis' recent struggles has the ballclub even with Milwaukee atop the NL Central standings. The team has dropped two straight and four of six games since winning four in a row, and the rain did not come to the Cardinals' aid in last night's series-opening loss.

Kyle McClellan started for the Cards and fought the delay, allowing four runs -- three earned -- and six hits in seven innings of work to absorb the loss.

"It was just one of those (games) where a couple pitches made the difference," said McClellan. "I avoided the big inning for the most part, it just didn't work out."

Albert Pujols went 0-for-3 with a walk in his second game back from a broken left wrist and is 1-for-9 in two games since his early return. St. Louis recorded its only run of the game on a Matt Holliday RBI double in the sixth. Holliday has driven in six runs in his last three games with three homers in that stretch. Lance Berkman, arguably the club's MVP this season, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

The Cardinals are 2-2 so far on a seven-game homestand.

Kyle Lohse's 7-2 mark after 11 starts is long gone and the right-hander is trying to regain his early-season form. Lohse gets the call tonight for St. Louis and is 1-3 with a 4.89 ERA in his last six starts. He was on the losing end of his team's 8-3 setback at Tampa Bay on Sunday and gave up five runs, four of which were earned, and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Lohse is now 8-5 in 17 starts with a 2.97 ERA and hopes to even his home mark with a win tonight. He is 2-3 in seven starts at Busch Stadium in 2011 and 2-1 with a 4.71 ERA in seven career starts against Arizona.

St. Louis won two of three matchups with Arizona from April 11-13 this season and is 6-5 in the past 11 contests in this series.






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