Cardinals at Cubs
While also impressive on the road this season, the Chicago Cubs have taken full advantage of the friendly confines of Wrigley Field, posting a National League-best home record of 25-8. The Cubs look to improve upon that mark when they begin a three-game series against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Monday.
Chicago is coming off a three-game home sweep of Pittsburgh during which it outscored its NL Central rival 20-8 while improving to 11-2 over its last 13 contests in the Windy City. Unlike most teams, the Cardinals have been more comfortable on the road than at home this year, as evidenced by their winless five-game interleague stretch at Busch Stadium that concluded with Sunday's 5-4 loss to Texas. St. Louis is 15-21 in its own ballpark but has won five straight on the road, where it owns a 20-12 mark. The Cardinals are 2-4 against the Cubs this season, with all six contests taking place in St. Louis.
TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, FSN Midwest (St. Louis), CSN Chicago
PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals LH Jaime Garcia (4-6, 3.93 ERA) vs. Cubs RH John Lackey (7-2, 2.66)
Garcia has won just one of his last six starts, suffering his fourth loss in that span after yielding four runs (three earned) and eight hits over 6 1/3 innings against Houston on Tuesday. The outing marked just the second time the 29-year-old Mexican worked more than five frames during his difficult stretch but the fourth time he gave up fewer than four earned runs. Garcia fell to 2-2 in seven career appearances (six starts) against Chicago on April 19, taking the loss after allowing two runs on four hits and four walks in five innings.
Lackey looks to extend his unbeaten streak to seven starts after settling for a no-decision at Washington on Tuesday, when he allowed two runs and four hits in six innings. The 37-year-old Texan has yielded more than two earned runs just once in his last nine turns, with that instance occurring at St. Louis on May 23. Lackey will be making his third career start against the team with which he spent the previous 1 1/2 seasons after going 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA and 0.71 WHIP in the first two — both of which took place earlier this year.
WALK-OFFS
1. Cubs CF Dexter Fowler did not play Sunday after suffering a right hamstring injury a day earlier and could be headed to the disabled list.
2. St. Louis activated RHP Seth Maness (elbow) from the 15-day disabled list and optioned LHP Dean Kiekhefer to Triple-A Memphis.
3. Chicago C Willson Contreras is expected to make his first career start Monday, one day after receiving his first major league at-bat and belting the first pitch he saw for a two-run homer in a pinch-hitting appearance.