- The Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals are both fighting for a playoff spot, however, only one team is doing something about it. The two clubs will kick off a three-game series tonight at Busch Stadium.
The Phillies come into tonight's game having just swept the National League East-leading New York Mets in three games over the weekend. Philadelphia has now won four in a row overall and trail New York by 3 1/2 games in the standings.
The club also remained 1 1/2 games behind the wild card-leading San Diego Padres, who swept the Giants over the weekend.
Philadelphia got a big lift off the bench on Sunday, as Greg Dobbs' pinch-hit grand slam highlighted a five-run sixth inning that helped the Phils to a 10-6 victory over the Mets to complete the sweep.
Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand and Jayson Werth each scored a pair of runs for the Phillies, who posted their eighth straight victory over the Mets.
However, the Phillies struggled once before after sweeping New York. Philadelphia posted a big four-game sweep at home over the Mets in late August to get within two games of the division lead. The Phils, though, went on to lose seven of their next 13 to fall back again.
Hoping to reverse that trend tonight will be Kyle Kendrick, who will start tonight's game despite suffering a bruised right knee last time out. Kendrick pitched three innings against Colorado on Wednesday before getting hit in his knee by a liner. He allowed four runs on seven hits in the loss, falling to 8-4 with a 4.02 earned run average.
The right-hander has made just on career start against the Cardinals, getting the win against them on July 13 after throwing seven innings of one-run ball.
For the Cardinals, a strong end of August and early September had them back in the hunt of a wide open National League Central. However, the club has lost 12 of its last 15 games -- a stretch that includes a back-breaking nine-game losing streak.
St. Louis lost three of four over the weekend to the front-running Chicago Cubs, and now trail the squad by seven games in the standings.
After splitting a day-night doubleheader on Saturday, the Cardinals fell flat in yesterday's 4-2 setback. Skip Schumaker, who entered in the eighth as a pinch-hitter, drove in both runs for the Cardinals. Mark Mulder (0-3) lasted only three innings, allowing seven hits and four runs for St. Louis.
Brad Thompson is likely to start the opener for the Cardinals tonight and is 6-5 with a 5.05 ERA in 41 games (14 starts) this season. He has never started against the Phillies, but is 1-1 with an 8.10 ERA in five relief outings against them.
The right-hander's last start came on September 9 against the Diamondbacks and he lasted just two innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He then threw two scoreless innings of relief against the Reds on Thursday, giving up just one hit.
The Phillies have won four of their six matchups with the Cardinals this year, including two of three in St. Louis from June 22-24.
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