Cardinals (27-19) v. Brewers (27-19)

Last night was ugly and I don’t think warrants much if a review.  The real Jeff Suppan showed up, the beleaguered offense continued and the team’s poor performance on national TV continued (0-3 this year).  The offense is now averaging less than 3 runs a game over the last 8 games and has to be a real concern.  We are beat up by injuries, Counsell is playing everyday, Cam has cooled up mightily since his hot start, Hart is slumping hard and Hall sucks.  On top of this, Ryan Braun left last nights game after being hit on the wrist.  X-Rays were negative, but he might be held out of a game or two.  Overall, the offense does not look good.  We gotta turn it around!  I’m not even going to touch on Suppan.  Let’s hope we win today, to capture the series and remain in first place.  Here is a preview:

Today’s pitching matchup in the series finale has the possibility to be ugly, so it might be which team outscores the other wins.  Manny Parra will go for the Crew, coming off his worst outing of the year against the Twins.  He continues to be erratic and show no control of his pitches, as well as having the one inning in which he struggles severely every outing.  Parra did pitch well against the Red Birds two weekends ago, so hopefully he can repeat that.  Todd Wellemeyer goes for the Cardinals.  He has pretty much been shelled this entire year, except for his last outing against the Royals when he threw 6 shutout innings.  Even with that, he is still carrying a 5.19 ERA (which is better than Parra).  The Brewers got 4 runs off of him in 5 2/3 last time they met, but that was basically because of the fact that he walked 7 Brewers.  Lets break out of this funk and reclaim first place.  Go Brewers!!