Can Cards’ Garcia contain Brewers again?
There’s no place like home for Jaime Garcia, and the lone lefty in the Cardinals’ rotation finally returns to those familiar Busch Stadium digs this afternoon.
St. Louis and Milwaukee conclude their three-game set with a rubber match at 1:45 p.m. ET. According to oddsmakers at online sports book BetDSI, the host team is a 1.5-run favorite to recover from Wednesday night’s 6-4 setback.
Garcia’s presence on the mound clearly has a lot to do with the Redbirds’ preferred status. In 2015, he went 5-2 with a 1.70 ERA in 10 starts in the Gateway City. The 29-year-old split two starts against the Brewers last summer.
Craig Counsell’s club, however, is on a bit of a surprising roll. Milwaukee boasts four wins in its past six contests after being outscored 14-4 while losing the first two. Jonathan Lucroy continues to lead the offensive charge, too, batting .346 with a pair of RBIs. The former All-Star catcher’s .542 average over the last eight matchups at Busch deserves even more plaudits.
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The Lucroy-Garcia battle may assume top billing, but St. Louis skipper Mike Matheny also hopes to get a spark from Matt Carpenter (.233). The struggling leadoff man typically tears apart the Brew Crew’s scheduled starter, Wily Peralta, to the tune of a 15-for-33 mark. No. 3 hitter Matt Holliday loves joining in on that action, too, battering the veteran righty at a .385 clip.
Most of the time, Peralta’s flat-out miserable when facing anyone outside of Miller Park. That 1-7 road record since the tail end of 2013 speaks volumes about Milwaukee’s prospects of prevailing in the series finale.
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