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Cards try to keep slim postseason hopes alive versus Brewers

Sep 7, 2011 - 2:59 PM (Sports Network) - The St. Louis Cardinals get one more chance at directly trying to keep their division title hopes alive tonight as they wrap their season series with the first-place Milwaukee Brewers.

The two rivals have split the first two meetings of this three-game set, giving the Brewers a magic number of 11 at clinching their first division of any kind since winning the American League East in 1982. St. Louis prevented Milwaukee from inching closer to that crown with last night's 4-2 win, giving it a victory in five of its last six versus the Brewers. Still, the second- place Cards are 9 1/2 games behind the pace.

St. Louis, which is also 7 1/2 games behind the NL's Wild Card spot, got homers from Jon Jay and Matt Holliday in last night's win, while Kyle Lohse hurled six shutout innings while pitching on eight day's rest.

Prince Fielder hit a single in the ninth inning to score Corey Hart, who has an 18-game hitting streak, and bring the Brewers to within two, but reliever Jason Motte got Casey McGehee to hit into a game-ending double play.

"You don't want to give up a run, but we won the ballgame. That's all that really matters," said reliever Jason Motte, who allowed Fielder's RBI hit.

Milwaukee had a four-game winning streak end and tonight turns to Zack Greinke, who looks to best the Cardinals for the third time in as many starts this season. He holds a lifetime record of 5-2 with a 3.95 earned run average in eight career games against the club.

The right-hander has won two straight starts and is 7-1 over his past eight outings. After Greinke kept his home record perfect with a win over the Cubs on Aug. 28, the former Cy Young Award winner limited Houston to a pair of runs on nine hits over six innings of an 8-2 win on Friday.

Greinke, 27, improved to 14-5 with a 4.00 ERA on the year and 4-5 with a 5.31 ERA in 11 road outings.

Chris Carpenter aims to find the win column for the first time in five starts this evening for the Cardinals.

The 36-year-old righty is 0-1 over his winless drought, with St. Louis losing all four games. He has been charged with six runs over his last two games, including a six-inning no-decision against the Reds on Friday, giving him an 8-9 mark and 3.92 ERA in 29 games this season.

Carpenter is only 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA in three games versus the Brewers this year, though the win came in his last meeting with the club at home on Aug. 11. He scattered two runs over eight innings in that one.