The St. Louis Cardinals are just 1.5 games behind the Pirates after having a tough series this week in the NL Central and now the team will try and keep things close up top as they take on the division rival Cincinnati Reds in a three game series on Friday night at Great American Ball Park in Ohio.
The team has been playing some fantastic baseball this season, but after starting off an 11-game trip as the leader of the Central, the team has fallen behind and after scoring just three runs against the Braves and dropping four of five against the Pirates, the team is chasing Pitt after being the best team in the league by record for a nice stretch. The team has been one of the best offensive squads in the league and on Thursday Allen Craig, Jon Jay and Tony Cruz all came through to power the team to a victory.
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The Cardinals have played well against the Reds this year and has won two of three at the Park and six of nine overall. Bronson Arroyo has great numbers against Allen Craig, who has one hit in 14 at-bats in his last four starts, but Carlos Beltran, Matt Holliday and Matt Adams have hit home runs off of him and Beltran is hot, going 8 for 22 with two home runs in his last five games versus Cincinnati. The Reds are in the thick of it due to the second Wild Card and the top three teams in the Central could all end up making the playoffs depending on how things shake out later on.
Joey Votto has been killing the Cardinals this season and the team will send Shelby Miller to the mound against Arroyo and he has a 10-7 record with a 2.79 ERA this season. Miller has been up and down at times this season and the Reds are four back of the Cardinals and over five back of the Pirates in the division. The Crdinals have been one of the most consistent teams in baseball and one of the best offensive teams and now they have the chance to make up ground in the division against a rival.
The team is 63-44 this season and for a time had the best record and they will go up against the Reds at 60-49. The Cardinals have been mashing again this year and rank fourth in runs, third in batting average, third in on base percentage and 11th in slugging despite losing Albert Pujols to the Angels two years ago. The Reds are ranked 12th in runs and 18th in batting average while the team is ranked eighth in on base percentage and 16th in slugging.
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