Adam Wainwright will try to be his dominant self when the St. Louis Cardinals open a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies Friday at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright recorded his fourth complete game of the season in Sunday's 9-1 pounding of the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park and permitted just a run and seven hits with three strikeouts and one walk.
The right-hander has won back-to-back starts and is 17-9 with a 2.62 earned run average this season. Wainwright, who is trying to match Johnny Cueto and Clayton Kershaw for the most wins in baseball, has won three straight home starts and is 7-3 in 12 starts at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright has faced Colorado 11 times (7 starts) in his career and is 6-1 with a 1.50 ERA.
St. Louis could use another gem from Wainwright and lost the last three meetings of a four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds. In Thursday's 1-0 loss to the rival Reds, Brandon Phillips scored the only run of the game on a groundout by Ramon Santiago in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Lance Lynn suffered the hard-luck loss and last eight innings on the mound, allowing the only run of the game and three hits with six strikeouts and one walk. Lynn fell to 15-9 on the season.
"The one batter I walked cost me the game," said Lynn.
The Cardinals are 2 1/2 games ahead of Pittsburgh and four games in front of Milwaukee for the NL Central lead. They are starting a nine-game homestand Friday versus Colorado, Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
Colorado was just swept in three games by the New York Mets and dropped a 2-0 decision on Wednesday at Citi Field.
Tyler Matzek was dealt the loss for allowing both runs in 6 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked four in falling to 5-10 on the season.
"We pitched very well this series," said Rockies manager Walt Weiss. "Tyler did a great job, threw the ball very well tonight. But you score two runs in three games, and you're not going to win."
The Rockies haven't scored in each of their last two games and had won four in a row before taking on the Mets.
Jorge De La Rosa will handle pitching duties for the Rockies Friday and is 13-10 with a 4.27 earned run average. De La Rosa is 2-4 in his last six decisions and did not factor in the outcome of a Saturday's 7-6 win over San Diego, as he gave up three runs in 5 2/3 innings.
De La Rosa is 4-8 in 15 road starts this season and 6-3 with a 4.71 ERA in 15 career meetings (9 starts) with the Cardinals.
St. Louis won two of three games at Coors Field in late June.
[SportsNetwork.com]
