Weekend Series Preview: Cardinals @ Phillies 7/24-7/26

St. Louis visits Philadelphia for the first and only time of the season this weekend. The Central division leading Cardinals (52-46) will face the East division leading Phillies (54-39) for three games. Pitching match ups and other notes below.


Friday, 7:05pm. Joel Pineiro (8-9, 3.09 ERA) vs. "Jay" Happ (7-0, 2.68 ERA). Pineiro has made 3 career starts against the Phillies and is 1-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 19 1/3 innings pitched. In 10 road starts this season, Pineiro is 4-5 with a 3.86 ERA. Over his last 3 starts, Pineiro has a 1.56 ERA. In 12 appearances at home this season, Happ is 3-0 with a 4.04 ERA. Over his last 6 starts, Happ's ERA is 1.67. Happ as a starter is 5-0 with a 2.74 ERA.


Saturday, 4:05pm. Kyle Lohse (4-6, 4.21 ERA) vs. Rodrigo Lopez (2-0, 2.60 ERA). Lohse returns to Citizens Bank Park for the first time since surrendering the infamous grand slam to Kaz Matsui in the 2007 playoffs. In 7 regular season games at CBP, Lohse is 2-0 with a 3.52 ERA. RoLo has made all of his Phillies starts at home and has still not surrendered a homerun this year. In his career, Julio Lugo is 11-for-29 (.379 avg) with a homer and 3 RBI against RoLo.


Sunday, 1:35pm. Todd Wellemeyer (7-8, 5.68 ERA) vs. Joe Blanton (6-4, 4.24 ERA). In 7 career games against the Phillies, Wellemeyer is 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA. Wellemeyer is 3-3 on the road this season with a 6.14 ERA in 9 games. Chase Utley is 4-for-8 (.500 avg) against Wellemeyer in his career with 2 homeruns and 4 RBI. Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth are a combined 0-for-13 against Wellemeyer in their careers. Blanton has two career starts against St. Louis- 13 innings pitched, 1.38 ERA, 0.92 WHIP. At home this season, Blanton is 3-2 with a 4.26 ERA. Blanton's ERA over 6 day starts is 5.80.


Albert Pujols is the Cardinals' stolen base leader with 10. Pujols is just 1-for-8 combined off of the Phillies 3 starters in this series. Pujols is a .367 hitter in 15 career games at CBP with 9 homers and 19 RBI.

Raul Ibanez's batting average is 41 points lower at home than it is on the road (.286/.327) this season. In 13 career games against the Cardinals, Ibanez is a .320 hitter with 2 homeruns and 5 RBI.

Only 1 of Brad Lidge's 6 blown saves was at home this season. Despite that, Lidge's home ERA is 6.86 this year. At 5.87, Lidge's July ERA is his best month of the season thus far.

In 16 career appearances (25 1/3 innings pitched) against the Cardinals, Ryan Madson's ERA is 1.78.

In his career against St. Louis, Ryan Howard is a .376 hitter with 13 homers, 37 RBI and a 1.310 OPS in 27 games.

Cardinals team runs scored- 428
Phillies team runs scored- 503