The St. Louis Cardinals will try to get their offense going on Tuesday night when they conclude their home portion of this four-game series with the Kansas City Royals.
The Cardinals were shut out for a second game in a row in Monday's opener, managing just three hits in a 6-0 loss. Two of those came off the bat of Matt Holliday, who also drew a walk, but St. Louis still fell to 2-6 on a nine-game homestand.
Shelby Miller kept his club in the game by firing six scoreless innings, but ended up yielding four runs over seven-plus frames to take the loss.
"I gave it all away (in the seventh)," Miller said. "It's frustrating on my part, because it's my fault we lost."
Miller was rolling until Alex Gordon snapped a scoreless game with a solo homer to begin the seventh. Mike Moustakas added a two-run double in the frame and the Royals tacked on three more runs in the eighth.
"I wanted to try to do some damage," Gordon said. "I got a pitch away, was able to get extended and got a good swing on it."
Danny Duffy picked up the win in the opener of the I-70 series, hurling six innings of one-hit ball. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Aaron Crow each tossed an inning of relief behind Duffy to finish off the shutout.
The Royals were coming off a split of a four-game set with Toronto and beat the Cardinals for just the fifth time in the last 16 meetings overall. St. Louis won three of four in the series a season ago.
Kansas City will host the final two games of this home-and-home encounter beginning on Wednesday and turn to James Shields tonight in St. Louis.
Shields is a solid 6-3 on the year with a 3.36 earned run average, but has struggled in consecutive no-decisions. Over that span, he has allowed 10 runs and 17 hits over 13 innings, but the Royals won both games.
The right-hander also has yielded five homers in his last two starts after serving up five total in his first 10. Three of those home runs came in Thursday's outing against the Toronto Blue Jays, though Shields also fanned six without a walk over seven innings.
Shields, 32, faced the Cardinals for the first time in his career last May 27 and was hit hard in a loss, giving up six runs over six innings.
Jamie Garcia will make his fourth start of the campaign tonight for St. Louis and is 1-0 on the year with a 4.12 ERA.
Garcia did not get a decision last time out as the left-hander gave up three runs on five hits over seven innings against San Francisco. He did not walk a batter and has yet to issue a free pass over his 19 2/3 innings this year.
The 27-year-old Garcia is 0-1 with a 7.30 ERA in three lifetime meetings with the Royals.
[SportsNetwork.com]
