Cards Welcome Brew Crew for Key Series

The cardinals have been playing good ball lately while winning 7 of their last 10, however the Cubs and Brewers will not allow the ‘birds to gain any ground. The Redbirds sit 8 games back of the Cubs in the Central and 3.5 back of the Brewers in the wild card.

St. Louis recently placed Chris Carpenter back on the disabled list, but welcomed back Adam Wainwright this past week against the Braves. The Cardinals were all but set to answer their closer problems by sticking Wainwright in the 9 th inning role, but with the injury to Carpenter and some inconsistent pitching from Joel Pineiro the club was forced to start Adam. In his first start back the club backed him with 18 runs in support of his case for his 7th victory of the season. Wainwright threw 6 solid innings while giving up just 1 run.

The Cardinals get Milwaukee at home tomorrow night for a 2-game set in which the Cards could really use a sweep. The pitching probables suggest a fun series debuting with Todd Wellemeyer (11-4) squaring off against Brewer co-ace Ben Sheets (11-7). Wednesday Adam Wainwright (7-3) will look for another win as he takes on Manny Parra (10-6).

> Find a great selection of St Louis Cardinals hats & apparel online through MLB Center & Pro Baseball Fans!

Meanwhile the Cardinals have gotten a big boost from recently acquired utility player and former all-star Felipe Lopez as well as reliever Chris Perez. Lopez has taken a lot of playing time from Kennedy and Miles and is hitting .294 in his last 7 games while adding some speed on the base paths to the line-up. Perez has seemingly taken over the closer role and last night converted his 3rd save of more than 3 outs on the season.

With only 30 games remaining on the year Tony LaRussa and the Cards are going to have to take some chances if they are going to catch the Brewers or the Cubs. This upcoming 2 game series with Milwaukee could have major implications on who reaches the post-season.

By Zack Estes
St. Louis Cardinals Correspondent

> View all of the MLB baseball news articles from ProBaseball-fans.com.