This afternoon at 4:05 p.m. ET a pair of National League Central teams will square off as the St. Louis Cardinals (69-51) face the Chicago Cubs (52-68) at Wrigley Field in the opener of a three-game weekend series. The game can be live streamed here. Cardinals' fans can listen to all the action on KMOX 1120 while Cubs fans can access it by tuning their dials to WGN 720.
St. Louis, coming off of taking two of three from the Pirates at home, will look to pitcher Jake Westbrook (7-7 with a 4.11 ERA in 16 starts) while the Cubs will counter with Jake Arrieta (0-0, 1.50 ERA in one start) after being swept away by the Reds at home.
St. Louis trails the division-leading Pittsburgh Pirates by two games after winning the series finale 6-5 in 12 innings and is looking to feast on the Cubs after a subpar 4-6 10-game home stand which saw infielder Matt Carpenter go on a tear with a .413 average. St. Louis is in the midst of a division race with the Pirates and Cincinnati Reds for the division title. The Reds enter the weekend just 2.5 games out of the division lead, right on the Cardinals' heels.
Cardinals' outfielder Matt Holliday carries a 12-game hitting streak into the series.
The Cubs took two of three from the Cardinals when the teams met last weekend, and St. Louis is looking for a measure of revenge. The Cubs have gotten the better of St. Louis this season, as Chicago owns a 7-6 record against them.
The Cubs acquired Arrieta through a midseason trade with the Orioles for Scott Feldman and have added him to their rotation for the final six weeks of the season. Arrieta, 27, only started once so far for Chicago in the second game of a July 30 doubleheader against the Brewers, giving up one run, two hits and three walks over six innings.
St. Louis will counter with Westbrook, who boasts a 2.79 ERA and 1-1 record against the Cubs this season in three starts in 19.1 innings. Westbrook appeared in an emergency relief appearance Wednesday and surrendered nine runs on 13 hits in 4.2 innings.
"Three days of rest is sufficient for most people," Westbrook said per MLB.com about the outing. "You want to come in and do what you can. The bottom line is I didn't do that. I just didn't pitch very well, and that hurt us."
The Cubs enter the game struggling to score runs at home, having been shutout in four of their last five home games against the Dodgers and Reds. The Cubs are a lowly 3-10 in the month of August. While the Cubs won't see any playoff action this October as they're 16.5 games behind the Pirates, the team still enjoys trying to play the role of spoiler.
"We've got a lot of teams coming up and we want to spoil some of their hopes of going to the playoffs and make it interesting," said Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, according to ESPN.com. "We could be a big part of that and make this division interesting, especially how many times we play these teams coming up."
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