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Streaking Cardinals aim to gain ground on Cubs

Aug 17, 2007 - 1:36 PM St. Louis (58-60) at Chi Cubs (61-59) 2:20 pm EDT

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Playing some of their best baseball of the season, the surging St. Louis Cardinals look to gain ground on the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday when the National League Central Division rivals open a four-game series.

St. Louis impressively swept division leader Milwaukee (62-59) in three games and have narrowed an eight-game deficit to 2 1/2 games in just over the last 12 days.

Winners of a season-high five straight - outscoring their opponents 46-10 in that time - the Cardinals will attempt to win six straight contests for the first time since a seven-game winning streak from July 7-16 of last season.

Meanwhile, the Cubs have been unable to gain much ground on fading Milwaukee - which has won only two of its last 10 - as Chicago has went just 3-7 over its last 10 contests.

Braden Looper (10-9, 5.08 ERA) began the Cardinals' winning streak with a 6-1 victory over the Dodgers on Saturday, when he yielded one run over six frames.

Looper looks for his third straight win in this contest. The righthander has won both starts against Chicago this season, limiting the Cubs to a .196 batting average.

Rich Hill (6-7, 3.85) has not been so lucky, however, as he tries to recover from a horrible outing. In a 15-2 loss to the Rockies on Saturday, he surrendered a season-high seven runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings.