There is no question that the St. Louis Cardinals have the best pitching rotation in baseball. However, their batting rotation leaves a lot to be desired as their four-game losing can be credited to no run support. That trend continued against the San Diego Padres on Friday night when they managed just four hits in the 2-1 loss. The Cardinals are hoping to turn their luck around as they face the Padres with Carlos Martinez on the mound.
The Cardinals have good luck when Martinez is pitching. The pitcher is 9-3 with a 2.80 ERA on the season while holding the best ERA (1.35) among NL pitchers since late May. He has eight quality starts to his name as the Cardinals are 13-3 when he takes the mound. His last start against the Chicago Cub featured just two hits over six innings of play. The Cardinals are very confident that their pitching will continue to be great while their batting rotation tells a different story. Over 10 games they have just 27 runs while totaling just six runs in their past four games. They are currently 1for 34 with runners in scoring position.
San Diego will counter with Odrisamer Despaigne who is 3-6 with a 4.94 ERA on the season. However in 10 starts since the start of May he is just 1-6 with a 5.68 ERA. He has been giving up several home runs, averaging 1.42 per nine innings. Against the Cardinals he is 0-2 with a 10.24 ERA.
The Padres have not been the offensive-heavy team as of recent either. They did enough to get the win on Friday while hoping that will get some momentum that can help the Padres meet the early expectations placed on them.
"If we want to be the team we think we can, these are the games we have to win," Jedd Gyorko said, via ESPN.com. "We have to be able to come in and win games like this. I would find it hard to believe this wasn't a playoff atmosphere the way this was played tonight. ... It comes down to getting that big hit."
