That’s a Wrap
St. Louis Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer emerged as one of the league’s biggest surprises before elbow problems interrupted his successful start to the season.
Making his first appearance in nearly two weeks, Wellemeyer looks to return to his winning ways on Thursday as the Cardinals try to avoid losing a sixth straight series to the Detroit Tigers in the conclusion of their interleague set.
Oddsmakers from Sportsbook.com have made Detroit -131 money line favorites (MLB Odds) for tonight’s game, the over/under has been set at 9.5 total runs (Matchup). Current public betting information shows that 50% of bets for this game have been placed on Detroit -131 (View MLB Bet Percentages).
After spending his entire career as a reliever, Wellemeyer (7-2, 3.67 ERA) transitioned to a starting role shortly after joining St. Louis (45-34), which claimed him off waivers from Kansas City last May.
He went 3-1 with a 3.65 ERA in 11 starts last year, and carried that success into the current season, earning NL pitcher of the month honors after going 4-0 with a 2.19 ERA in six May starts.
The right-hander, though, was kept out of his second scheduled June start with elbow inflammation, then struggled through his most recent outing because of tightness in his pitching elbow.
He gave up a career-high eight runs and eight hits over 3 1-3 innings of a 20-2 home loss to Philadelphia on June 13, and afterward, he told reporters his "delivery felt a little out of whack."
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Wellemeyer has tossed intensive bullpen sessions to work through the injury, and barring any setbacks, he is expected to take the mound on Thursday.
"Everything felt pretty good," Wellemeyer told the Cardinals’ official Web site after Saturday’s bullpen session. "My slider felt back to normal. I was getting out over it. Felt great."
Wellemeyer, who has not lost back-to-back decisions since 2006 when he was relieving, is 2-0 with a 1.88 ERA in his last four road starts. He’s 2-1 with a 5.45 ERA in 17 interleague games, including three starts.
He is 1-0 with a 5.17 ERA in seven relief appearances – a span of 15 2-3 innings – versus Detroit, but has never started against the Tigers (37-40).
Detroit won for the 13th time in 17 tries Wednesday, 8-7 over the Cardinals in a game that included a nearly 2 1/2-hour rain delay.
Gary Sheffield had four hits, including the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth, and Carlos Guillen also had four hits for Detroit, which improved to 9-5 in interleague play.
"It was a long night. We knew this team was going to be tough," said Sheffield, who hit a two-run homer Tuesday in his first game off the disabled list. "We knew we had to keep plugging away and give ourselves a chance in the ninth inning and we did that."
Curtis Granderson extended his hitting streak to 13 games for the Tigers, who have won five consecutive regular season series against the Cardinals. That streak dates back to St. Louis winning two of three versus Detroit from June 4-6, 1999, though it did beat the Tigers to win the 2006 World Series.
Nate Robertson (6-6, 5.60) takes the mound for Detroit having won three straight outings, tying a career high established from Aug. 20-30, 2004, but he had a rocky performance on Saturday. The left-hander allowed five runs and seven hits while striking out five over six innings of a 7-5 win at San Diego.
Robertson is 6-3 with a 3.19 ERA in 14 interleague starts, winning four of his last five against the NL. He won his lone career appearance versus the Cardinals, giving up two runs and six hits over five innings of an 8-7 home victory on May 19, 2007.
Robertson will try to contain the Cardinals’ Rick Ankiel and Skip Schumaker.
Ankiel hit two homers and drove in three runs on Wednesday, and has batted .308 (8-for-26) with four home runs in his last six games. Schumaker homered Wednesday and is hitting .326 (14-for-43) with four homers in his last 11 games.
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