The San Francisco Giants (29-25) and St. Louis Cardinals (35-18) will open their weekend series at Busch Stadium on Friday night. The first pitch is set for 8:15 p.m. ET and will air live on Fox Midwest, live on MLB.com with a paid subscription and for free online here.
The Giants return to the stadium in which they began their undefeated run to the 2012 World Series for the first time since the NLCS. The Giants have lost 10 of 16, but hope to build on Thursday's 5-2 win over Oakland that prevented a season series sweep at the hands of their Bay Area rival.
"If this game got away from us, it would have been a long flight to St. Louis, believe me," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I thought (Thursday) was really critical."
Pablo Sandoval delivered a go-ahead two-run single to highlight a four-run sixth for the Giants, who remain confident despite their recent struggles.
"We've been losing some games but the attitude's been good. That's one thing we never lose," center fielder Angel Pagan told the Giants' official website. "We play with a lot of perseverance and determination to go out there and try to get everything better and play hard and believe that things will change."
A return to Busch Stadium may help the slumping Giants get out of their funk. San Francisco trailed the Cardinals 3-1 in last year's NL championship series but ran off seven straight victories to win the World Series, starting with 5-0 win at Busch in Game 5.
The Giants will have Matt Cain (4-2, 5.00 ERA), who has gone 4-0 with a 3.48 ERA in five starts this month, allowing four runs and six hits in 12 innings to go 1-0 in his last two. He gave up two runs and walked five innings of a 7-3 win over Colorado on Sunday.
St. Louis will match Cain with Shelby Miller (5-3, 2.02 ERA). He allowed one run and struck out 24 in 20 2/3 innings while going 2-0 in his first three May starts, but he's given up six runs in 11 innings to go 0-1 in the last two.
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