Phillies at Cardinals
Adam Wainwright finally broke into the win column in his last outing and the St. Louis Cardinals are hoping that the longtime anchor of their staff is ready to turn things around. The two-time National League Cy Young Award winner will look to help St. Louis snap a four-game losing streak in Monday night's series opener against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.
Wainwright won 92 games over a five-year span (2009-14) for the Cardinals before he was limited to seven appearances in 2015 due to an Achilles tendon injury. St. Louis could certainly use a lift from Wainwright after it was swept by the Washington Nationals over the weekend to open a 10-game homestand. Starting pitching has fueled the surging Phillies, who are riding a six-game winning streak and are 9-1 in their last 10 games. Philadelphia took three in a row from visiting Cleveland to register back-to-back three-game series sweeps for the first time since September 2012.
TV: 8:15 p.m. ET, CSN Philadelphia, FSN Midwest (St. Louis)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Phllies RH Jeremy Hellickson (2-1, 3.81 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Adam Wainwright (1-3, 7.16)
Hellickson is coming off a magnificent performance at Washington in his last start, tossing seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball while registering a season-high eight strikeouts. Hellickson had been pounded by the Nationals less than two weeks earlier and was tagged for 10 runs on 17 hits over 7 1/3 innings in his previous two turns. He has pitched much better away from home, logging a 2-0 record and 0.96 ERA in his three road starts.
Wainwright came away feeling positive about his last outing, even though he lasted only 5 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits in an 11-4 victory at Arizona. The 34-year-old Wainwright has yet to pitch beyond six innings and has permitted at least three runs in each of his five turns, although he recorded a season-high five strikeouts against the Diamondbacks. Wainwright owns a 5-2 record and 2.57 ERA in 12 appearances (10 starts) versus the Phillies.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Cardinals are 1-8 against teams with winning records and have been outscored 42-19 in those contests.
2. Philadelphia is 8-8 when it scored three runs or fewer after going 9-69 in such games in 2015.
3. Cardinals C Yadier Molina had an 11-game hitting streak and 18-game on-base string snapped in Sunday's loss to Washington.