For a still somewhat early-season series, it doesn't get much bigger than this for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The St. Louis Cardinals come to town tonight for the first of three games and enter play Friday with a 2 1/2-game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central.
Most observers expected the Brewers to be in the race but doubted the Cardinals, who lost ace Adam Wainwright in Spring Training and like the Brewers, have dealt with several injuries to key players this season, would be in the mix at this point.
The loss of Wainwright, coupled with Chris Carpenter's struggles (1-5, 4.25 ERA), have been nullified by a powerful offense that's been able to overcome a slow start by Albert Pujols, though the slugger has been hot lately.
For the season, Pujols is hitting .277 with 14 home runs and 40 RBI but over the last week, he's hitting .391/5/9 with three doubles.
The St. Louis lineup has benefited from the addition of Lance Berkman, who is hitting .331 with 15 home runs and 45 RBI. In a three-game set against Houston, his former team, earlier this week, Berkman went 4-for-11 with three homers and five RBI.
"They've got three monsters," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "I know they say Pujols isn't hitting, but he still gets his hits and still drives in his runs, and then all of a sudden, he goes crazy like he is now. So I'm not surprised that they're putting up big numbers and winning a lot of games. Of course they miss (Wainwright), but their starting pitching is still good."
St. Louis' rotation has been anchored by Friday's starter Kyle Lohse. The veteran right-hander is 7-2 with a 2.41 ERA and has recorded victories in his last three outings, holding opponents to just two runs over the last 23.1 innings.
Still, he hasn't beaten Milwaukee in nearly four years, though he did hold the Brewers to a run on six hits over eight innings in a 4-0 Milwaukee victory on May 7. His last victory against Milwaukee came in July 2007 while we was pitching for Cincinnati.
"He's good," Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder said. "You just have to try and get a strike and hit it. That's pretty much my scouting report."
The Brewers had a chance to gain ground on the Cardinals but dropped two of three to the Mets this week. Roenicke brushed off the notion that the St. Louis series had any extra significance, suggesting that his team would need to play much better than it did against New York if it wanted to make a move this weekend.
"It's a big series no matter who it would be," Roenicke said. "We didn't play these three games very well so we need to get back on track and play well. If we play well, it really doesn't matter who is coming in. If we play like this, we're going to get beat."
The Mets series aside, the Brewers have been playing good baseball. Since wrapping up a three-game series in St. Louis on May 8, Milwaukee has gone 21-8 at home – the best mark in baseball during that stretch.
"I think we prepare ourselves the same way every day but there's definitely added intensity and a little bit more adrenaline when you're playing against the teams in your division that you know you're competing with to get to where you want to be," outfielder Ryan Braun said. "We knew from the beginning they were going to be alright."
NL Central standings (through games Thursday)
Won | Loss | GB | |
St. Louis |
38 | 26 | –– |
Milwaukee | 35 | 28 | 2.5 |
Cincinnati | 33 | 31 | 5.0 |
Pittsburgh | 30 | 31 | 6.5 |
Chicago | 25 | 36 | 11.5 |
Houston | 24 | 39 | 13.5 |