The St. Louis Cardinals have traditionally beat up on the Chicago Cubs and despite the team's recent success this season, that has not changed. As the Cubs continue to struggle scoring runs while having strong pitching, the Cardinals have been taking advantage of it. While they promote the best pitching rotation in the league, the Cubs are struggling to get on top of it as they continue their series at Wrigley Field.
The Cardinals might not have shown much offensive firepower in their win on Monday, but they did continue their hot streak of the Cubs, something they want to keep up. The Cardinals struggled against Jon Lester, but Jhonny Peralta and Kris Bryant broke through late in the game for the win. St. Louis improved to being 8-2 against the Cubs this season as Chicago totaled just six hits in five straight losses against the National League team.
The Cubs have not been batting well as of late. The team is hitting just .204 with just 30 runs in their last 14 games, averaging just about two runs per matchup. Those type of numbers do not bode well against the top pitching rotation the Cardinals have. The team has an MLB-best 2.56 ERA while posting a 1.67 ERA in their past 12 games. Tyler Lyons will try and keep that going as he fills in for Jaime Garcia. The pitcher won his first two starts since getting called up from the minors. In his recent start he gave up four runs in four innings while St. Louis still got the win.
Chicago will put Jake Arrieta on the mound as pitching has not been an issue for the team. He is currently 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA in his last three starts while being 8-5 with a 2.80 ERA overall this year. He is 3-0 with an 0.56 ERA in five games at home. Arrieta has pitched well against St. Louis. He is 3-'1 with a 1.48 ERA in eight starts against the team. He is tasked with trying to make sure the Cubs do not drop six in a row to the Cardinals.
