Houston Astros (32-57) at St. Louis Cardinals (53-34), 7:15 pm (CT)

Houston at St. Louis Cardinals, 7:15 pm (CT)

TV: CSN Houston, MLB.TV FREE GAME OF THE DAY
Radio: KBME 790 AM, KLAT 1010 AM
Cardinals SBNation Blog: Viva El Birdos

Pitching Match

RHP Bud Norris (6-7 / 3.22 ERA / 1.37 WHIP) vs. RHP Adam Wainwright (11-5 / 2.36 ERA / 1.00 WHIP)

Preview

Since last we saw the Cardinals, they continued their road trip west - losing two games in both Oakland and Anaheim. St. Louis closed out the first week of July with a sweep of the Marlins at home. The Red Birds go from the 2nd worst team in baseball, to the first. A nice five-game stretch of the schedule to say the least.

Lets take a look at the Cardinals hitters over the last seve games. Allen Craig has been raking the ball, batting .444 (8-18) with six runs batted in. Catcher Yadier Molina continues to put up MVP-like numbers, hitting .375 (6-16) with only one strikeout. At the same time, David Freese and Matt Holliday are batting under .250 and both have two runs batted in.

Adam Wainwright could have had his twelfth win coming into this game, if not for a blow save in his last start. In that start, Wainwright gave up four runs over eight innings of work, striking out three. In the month of June, the tall right-hander had a record of 4-2 with an 1.77 ERA and 40 strikeouts. Astros All-Star catcher, Jason Castro is batting .417 in 12 at-bats lifetime against the Cardinals' ace.

On the mound today for the Astros is Bud Norris. Norris has bounced back from a less then steller June with two straight 1-run starts. In his most recent start, Norris held the Rays to one run over seven innings with five strikeouts. Allen Craig has Norris' number, batting .412 in 17 at-bats with two homeruns and seven runs batted in. Norris will be hoping to continue being a Cardinal-killer with a 2.74 ERA in 10 starts against St. Louis.